Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the phenomenon of increasing gender inequalities that happen at old age regarding women’s pension. Moving from recent life-course theories and studies, this study analyzes the reasons behind gender-biased pension levels and how their cumulative effects result in (continuous) significant gender gaps. The article presents a European overview of pension gender gap, focusing on family and work-life issues in Italy. This is one of the first critical reviews of the small but growing literature and national data concerning the effect of gender inequalities related to pension gaps in Italy. In the past, research on the balance of welfare provision between State, family, and market has ignored gender, while more recent studies have barely explored how gender roles, changing over time, interact with the shifts in pension policies. Considering the effects of work-life balance policies since the 2000 Lisbon agenda process and its development, the study especially focuses on the Italian case within the European context. The article examines how the choices in work-life balance policies vary between different national contexts and welfare regimes, by highlighting the Italian case. In this country, welfare and social policy regimes remain very unbalanced, showing a lack of awareness of family and women’s needs, as in many Southern countries, and Italy is not able to give appropriate answers to these problems and to the question of the growing gender gap. This article finally shows the poignancy of structural and cultural reasons for gender differentiated pension levels in Italy, within the European context, according to patterns of employment, marital, and maternal status between earlier and later generations of women.
Highlights
The reorganization of the welfare systems in OECD countries, in Europe, is currently being redesigned in order to include the aging population
Moving from recent life-course theories and studies, this article looks at the effect of work-life policies options on the increasing gender pension gap in Italy within the context of Europe
In Italy in particular, family-work balance and the job market will probably increase this gap for older generations of women
Summary
The reorganization of the welfare systems in OECD countries, in Europe, is currently being redesigned in order to include the aging population. In Europe, the state has had a critical role in establishing rather generous state sponsored pensions, which were meant to provide retirement security to all older adults These models were established after World War II, when the male-headed household was predominant and women were envisioned to be dependent upon men; even in Sweden a woman’s labor force participation was expected to be less than a man’s [2]. The work-family balance policies aimed to increase women’s labor market participation by facilitating part-time employment, as well as by providing pension entitlements for care periods outside the labor market. Moving from recent life-course theories and studies, this article looks at the effect of work-life policies options on the increasing gender pension gap in Italy within the context of Europe It shows the main cultural and structural factors related to life courses and welfare arrangements. In Italy in particular, family-work balance and the job market will probably increase this gap for older generations of women
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