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Lookup NU author(s): Professor David Lain
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
In the context of population ageing, the UK government is encouraging people to work longer and delay retirement and it is claimed that many people now make ‘gradual’ transitions from full-time to part-time work to retirement. Part-time employment in older age may, however, be largely due to women working part-time before older age, as per a UK ‘modified male breadwinner’ model. This article therefore separately examines the extent to which men and women make transitions into part-time work in older age, and whether such transitions are influenced by marital status. Following older men and women over a ten-year period using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this article presents sequence, cluster, and multinomial logistic regression analyses. Little evidence is found for people moving into part-time work in older age. Typically, women did not work at all or they worked part-time (with some remaining in part-time work and some retiring/exiting from this activity). Consistent with a ‘modified male breadwinner’ logic, marriage was positively related to the likelihood of women belonging to typically ‘female employment pathway clusters’, which mostly consist of part-time work or not being employed. Men were mostly working full-time regardless of marital status. Attempts to extend working lives among older women are therefore likely to be complicated by the influence of traditional gender roles on employment.
Author(s): van der Horst M, Lain D, Vickerstaff S, Clark C, Baumberg Geiger B
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: SAGE Open
Year: 2017
Volume: 7
Issue: 4
Pages: 1-17
Online publication date: 06/12/2017
Acceptance date: 28/09/2017
Date deposited: 28/09/2017
ISSN (electronic): 2158-2440
Publisher: Sage
URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017742690
DOI: 10.1177/2158244017742690
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