‘I had to take control’: gendered finance rationality in the UK

Abstract

Bringing together insights from feminist political economy and everyday financialization, this paper explores the complex nature of women's pension decisions. Women in the UK experience structural constraints originating from a pension system which ignores socially reproductive activities, and they face limitations in pension planning due to prevalent gender norms. Both aspects have a significant impact on women's long-term financial wellbeing and yet little attention has been paid to how they operate within these constraints, ultimately leading to women's behaviors being construed as passive or irrational. Drawing on 61 interviews, our paper conceptualizes pension practices adopted by women through gendered finance rationality, defined as variegated financial practices shaped by the gendered context in which they arise. Rather than being irrational or passive victims of an unequal welfare system, women actively engage with the limitations of the pension system and seek out asset strategies which seem more suited to their life trajectories, but implicitly reinforce gendered wealth inequalities.

The gendered construction of risk in asset accumulation for retirement

“…In contrast, whilst women's financial behaviours appear risk-averse, many female participants are engaged in saving and investing (i.e. contributing to workplace pensions and investing in more tangible assets (Agunsoye and James 2022). Yet, these women appear to distance themselves from being an 'investor', as a cultural model which does not reflect their lived experience (Enloe 2013, Joseph 2013) in contrast to their male counterparts who appeared to aspire to this cultural model.…”

“…Such concerns were not unique to women and given the piecemeal manner in which workplace pension legislation has developed in the UK, it is unsurprising that some people felt this way. Yet, the male participants did not express disenfranchisement in the same way, perhaps because they consider their decisions to be individual, regardless of the format of the solution presented to them and therefore feel comfortable with a system that appears to speak to their more individualistic gender norms and fits with their lived experiences (Agunsoye and James 2022).…”

“…Moreover, since workplace pensions are based on employment conditions, they reproduce structural inequalities such as lower pay and under-or unemployment. While more women are saving in DC schemes following automatic enrolment, they are nonetheless disadvantaged by pensions systems which assume a life-course with steady, full-time work since many are forced to take breaks for caring duties (Grady 2015, Foster et al 2017, Foster and Heneghan 2018, Agunsoye and James 2022. Around 10 million people out of the 31 million in employment in the UK were not eligible for automatic enrolment in 2017, which included 32 per cent of female workers, compared to 16 per cent of male workers (PPI 2017).…”