Career Pathways into Retirement in the UK: Linking Older Women's Pasts to the Present

Abstract

Understanding of how women's experiences in retirement are shaped by their pre‐retirement lives is limited. In this paper we utilize an innovative mix of measures to examine the link between career histories and expectations and experiences of retirement. Analysis of timeline data capturing the long working lives of a sample of older women identifies five different pathways into retirement. We explore these trajectories in detail to determine how they are shaped and their links to different outcomes in later life. The analysis shows how different career histories unfold and how they shape expectations and experiences of retirement. Long, professional career pathways leave women feeling enabled in retirement, women following more fragmented pathways are more constrained, and some trajectories, including pathways involving transitions into professional careers in later life, can leave older women financially and emotionally vulnerable in older age.

Are baby boomer women redefining retirement?

“…Boomer women's experiences of employment and retirement have also been affected significantly by several key demographic shifts: decreased fertility, increased rates of marital breakdown, a higher proportion remaining single, and greater participation in higher education, leading some into well paid careers (Moen & Lam, ; Toossi, ). As a consequence of these interrelated social, economic, and demographic changes, it is important to understand more about how boomer women's histories of paid and unpaid work are shaping their experiences of retirement (Duberley & Carmichael, ; Warner‐Smith et al, ). Moreover, as western governments face the challenges of an ageing population—managing pension systems, increased demand on health services, and future labour supplies—the ways in which boomer women negotiate boundaries between employment, unpaid work, and retirement have significant implications for social policy and social justice.…”

“…Most of the limitations identified by Slevin and Wingrove () persist (Sherry, Tomlinson, Loe, Johnston, & Feeney, ; van den Hoonaard, ). Although a broader range of theoretical perspectives is evident (e.g., Duberley & Carmichael, ; Sherry et al, ), the problem of weak theoretical applications continues to hinder some studies. Small sample sizes and lack of attention to diversity remain with continued focus on middle‐class professional women.…”

“…Studies that examine how women's experiences in retirement are shaped by their earlier life events and resources are limited. However, since 2014, Duberley and colleagues (e.g., Birkett et al, ; Duberley & Carmichael, ; Duberley, Carmichael, & Szmigin, ), from the UK, have published several very innovative studies incorporating structural and life‐course perspectives.…”

“…We do not consider the extensive retirement literature from health sciences, psychology and economics and other social sciences based on large national data sets and quantitative methodologies, and concerned primarily with outcome measures of adjustment, timing and wellbeing (e.g., Blossfeld et al, ; Warren, ). These findings are important for what they tell us about populations, but the measures used “cannot on their own illuminate the complex ways in which individuals make sense of and enact retirement” (Duberley & Carmichael, , p. 583). Our specific interest is in boomer women's constructions and experiences of retirement, in research that attends to women's voices and their meaning‐making (Slevin & Wingrove, , p. 14; Warner‐Smith, Everingham, & Ford, ).…”

“…We argue for more fine‐grained studies that investigate the impact of women's earlier life course transitions and circumstances on the resources available to them in later life, in order to elucidate processes of cumulative advantage and disadvantage that shape their experiences and expectations of retirement (Birkett et al, ; Duberley & Carmichael, ). We also argue for socially inclusive research, in terms of socio‐economic status, ethnicity, sexuality and family context, and studies that consider the effects of “successful ageing” discourses on women's lived experiences of “retirement” (Calasanti, ; Kesby, ; Martinson & Berridge, ).…”