Interrupted work histories: retired women telling their stories.

Abstract

The issue of women and work is a contemporary one which affects the private as well as the public sphere of women's lives. The social conditions which affect the present cohort of retired older women, have their roots in their work lives. In this article, we analyzed the oral histories of 7 retired women using a modified grounded theory approach to explore the long-term effects of having interrupted their work histories in order to care for family members. The core variable that emerged was the "valuing process" that occurred when these older women relieved their past experiences. We defined this as the relative merit that each participant attributed to her lifetime work achievements.