Background to the report
Despite the considerable attention that has been given, both in the media and by government, in the last decade to the ageing of the Australian population and the associated workforce and health implications, little is known either about women's attitudes towards retirement or the factors that shape them (Quine and Carter, 2004; Warren, 2006). As Dowrick and McDonald (2002) remark in their response to The Intergenerational Report, projection models cannot rely on current trends because these are subject to variability, particularly with respect to the massive increase in female work participation rates and the accompanying shift in women's attitudes towards work that flowed on from the social liberation movements of the 1960s.
Australian policymakers are confronting issues of future service provision for older people and the need to maintain a critical mass in the workforce. Similar increasing anxiety in regard to these issues has been identified in other western industrialised nations (Auer and Fortuny, 2000). The information in this report is relevant to the federal government's linked policy objectives of increasing the labour force participation rate of older workers and the retirement savings of individuals (House of Representatives, 2005). It is also relevant to government policy aimed at maximising the health and well-being of older Australians.
An important life event for older women is an episode of ill-health. These 'events' have been linked to a higher incidence of retirement in a number of Australian studies (ABS, 1997) and contribute to the tendency for Australian workers to exit the labour market at a higher rate than the OECD average (OECD, 2005).
As the retirement age is pushed further back, and those who are ageing are encouraged to remain in their homes and in good health for as long as possible, there is a need to know more about the working lives of women, their expectations and plans for retirement or for continued participation in paid and unpaid work, including caring.
The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH - also known as Women's Health Australia) is well placed to allow us to examine these experiences. ALSWH is a longitudinal population-based study that examines the health of a national sample of over 40,000 Australian women in three age groups. Women in the mid-age cohort were aged 45-50 at the time of the first postal survey in 1996. Since that time, the women have been invited to complete three follow-up surveys: Survey 2, in 1998; Survey 3 in 2001, and Survey 4 in 2004. In each Survey, women were asked to answer a large number of closed questions about their health and lifestyle. In Survey 4 in 2004, a series of questions about retirement was included. Data from those questions provides the content for this report. The Study itself is described in further detail in the next section.
The historical context
Many 'baby boomer' women did not expect to return to work after they had children, but most did return to work and many worked through their childbearing years. Their return to work was legitimated by many social policy advances - EEO, affirmative action, sexual harassment legislation, and the impetus of the women's movement generally (Everingham et al, 2006). Their experiences of paid work were typically fragmented, with accompanying disadvantage in respect of status, seniority and economic returns (see, for example, Game and Pringle, 1983; Waring, 1988; Probert, 1990; Arun et al, 2004). Some women were not 'employed' in the conventional sense, but were partners in a 'dual-person' (Papanek, 1973) or 'vicarious' career (Finch, 1983), supporting a husband who was typically in an occupational area such as the diplomatic service or was a self-employed professional or tradesman. With the introduction of no fault divorce in the 1970s, many left unsatisfactory marriages, but the higher divorce rate has meant that there were more single mothers, for whom life was a struggle until at least their 40s and 50s (Loxton, 2005).
For those who did paid work on their own account, 'retirement' belonged to the world of their breadwinner partners. Retirement can be conceptualised as a doorway through which men pass when they leave the paid workforce. This is not necessarily so for women, particularly those who have spent a considerable proportion of their lives out of the paid workforce, caring for others. Women have been more likely to move in and out of the workforce, juggling work and family, rather than remain on the male career trajectory of full-time work leading to retirement (Everingham et al, 2006). Although the increase in dual-earner couples means that retirement decision-making is likely to become more interdependent, women's retirement decisions are still more influenced by their partners than men's (Pienta and Hayward, 2002).
One contrast to the trend for lower workforce participation at older ages is that, unlike men, older women have become more active in the labour force (Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 2000; Vanden Heuvel, 1999). For women aged 45-54 years, participation rates rose from 50.7% in 1984 to 75% in 2004; for women aged 55-64 participation increased from 20.3% to 43.8%. In comparison, participation for men aged 45-54 decreased slightly over the two decades, from 90.1% to 88.0%, although for men aged 55-64 there was a slight increase from 61.2% in 1984 to 65.3% in 2004 (ABS, 2006c).
Although the working lives of women who are now in mid-life may have been fragmented, many of them have developed a very strong attachment to the labour force and in fact have found their careers accelerating into their forties and fifties (Warner-Smith, 1996). There is also an increasing trend to self-employment among older people (Huber and Skidmore, 2003) and women (Cohen, 1996). In the last twenty years the number of self-employed women in Australia has risen by over one third, from about 275,000 in 1984 to over 400,000 in 2006 (ABS, 2006a).
The fact that many 'baby boomer' women are enjoying their independence in these pre-retirement years suggests that they may not necessarily want to retire in their 60s. This problematises the expectation that these women will readily assume caring responsibilities, either for ageing, frail husbands and other relatives, or provide childcare for their grandchildren, in the same way as their mothers have done (Huber and Skidmore, 2003). While they may be prepared to provide such care, their response may be contingent on an unexpected crisis, rather than automatically moving into the carer role as part of their ageing maternal persona. This generation may exhibit quite significant shifts in attitudes towards work and retirement, which will have very important social and policy implications.
The economic context
A recent report on retirement published by the Australian Government Office for Women (OfW), Aspects of Retirement for Older Women, has a particular economic focus and deals comprehensively with issues of financial security (Warren, 2006). The report may be obtained from OfW1 and therefore the findings will not be repeated here, but they underline the disadvantage faced by many women in retirement compared to men and identify a number of reasons for this.
Firstly, prior to the introduction of compulsory superannuation, women were more likely to be in jobs where their employer did not contribute to a superannuation fund on their behalf. Even with the introduction of compulsory superannuation, women receive less because contributions are usually based on a percentage of total salary and, on average, men's earnings are higher than women's, and more women than men work in low-paying occupations. Furthermore, women are more likely to work part time and to experience periods of career interruption because of caring responsibilities. Even when women re-enter the workforce later in life, their superannuation contributions accumulate far less interest than people who have had an unbroken career path (Warren, 2006).
The threshold for compulsory superannuation contributions is an income of $450 per month, which is one reason why women, who as noted above are more likely to be in part-time employment, have lower contributions or no contributions. In 2004-05, among retired people only two thirds as many women as men had ever contributed to a superannuation fund. Although this contrasts with the situation for non-retired people, where almost as many women as men (just over 90%) had made contributions to a fund (ABS, 2006b), women have some ground to make up. Data from the HILDA project showed that in 2002, among people aged 55-59 who were still employed, 82% of women and 84% of men had some superannuation, with women having an average of $69,505 and men averaging $189,555 (Warren, 2006).
Similar evidence is cited in a research report by Ross Clare for the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA). In 2002, 69% of all men aged 55-64 had some superannuation, with the average amount being $183,600. This compares with 53% of all women of the same age having some superannuation, with an average amount of $94,700 (Clare, 2005).
Over the last 20 years or so there have been fundamental changes to occupational superannuation. Most traditional superannuation schemes were based on a model of a male employee, with subsidiary benefits for dependants, defined to be to an opposite sex spouse and infant children. Married women were often forced to leave employment and the superannuation scheme on marriage. Legislative and labour force developments have fundamentally changed the nature of superannuation. ... However, challenges remain. In particular, many women will retire with only modest amounts of superannuation (Clare, 2005).
Modelling indicates that in the year 2019-20 women will hold $600 billion, or one third of total projected superannuation assets of $1,800 billion (Olsberg, 2004). ASFA quotes a projected real average superannuation balance for women of $77,000 in 2019, and $121,000 for men2. This is consistent with the persistence of lower labour force participation rates for younger Australian women compared to men, and their greater representation in part-time work, largely due to the maintenance of the traditional gendered division of labour underpinning family formation (Craig, 2006). This scenario suggests that younger women need good financial planning. While women over 55 often access financial information or advice from government departments and community organisations, the primary source of financial information for younger women is family and friends (Department for Victorian Communities, 2005).
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Caring: The 'sandwich generation'
An important life experience of women in this age group is that of caring for older relatives, or other people who are frail, ill or disabled. Approximately 25% of all Australian women in their fifties are carers of other people (ABS 2005a). This high rate is due to a combination of the need for assistance of elderly parents and an increased likelihood of a partner having a disability. Many women concurrently also have children who still rely on them in some way, and they are thus 'sandwiched' between two dependent generations.
UK research has indicated that caring is related to early retirement.
24% of retired men aged 45-59, and 28% of retired women of this age, are carers. Some of them will have given up their jobs prematurely to accommodate their caring role (Yeandle et al, 2006:9).
The need to provide care for a relative in poor health has been cited as the reason for one-sixth of women aged 55 to 59 leaving employment in the UK (Blaikie, 1999). In the United States, the most common reason for men retiring earlier than planned was the offer of a 'golden handshake', whereas for women it was caregiving (Gross, 2005). American wives caring for their husbands were five times more likely to retire than women who were not caregivers, whereas husbands caring for their wives were substantially slower to retire (Dentinger and Clarkberg, 2006). However, workplace policies were found to make a difference in retaining American women with caring responsibilities in paid work (Pavalko and Henderson, 2006).
It is anticipated that the demand for elder and disability care in Australia will continue to rise but that a declining share will be met by informal care (NATSEM, 2004). There is evidence that these elder care roles currently undermine Australian women's ability to participate in paid work. The ABS (2005a) identified that almost 40% of all primary carers would like to combine their caring role with paid work, but many face barriers to participation. As mature age workers, older carers who would like to return to work when their caring responsibilities end, such as when a relative is institutionalised or dies, find it more difficult than younger workers to find employment (ABS, 2005b).
In the UK, too, it has been found that many carers want to combine paid work with caring, with some seeing employment as 'saving their sanity'. However, it was also the case that carers' decision-making about work and retirement was influenced by a variety of factors often based on short-term imperatives, and was marked by a lack of information about pension implications and entitlements (Arksey et al, 2005).
In 1996, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) noted that 'there are still enormous gaps in the information available to us' (Hoskins, 1996: 4). It argued that more complex issues required further investigation, identifying a need for specific information about informal caregivers, vulnerable workers, and work-life balance. While this is still the case, research that has addressed this need has shown, for example, that there is a 'business case' for providing carer-friendly policies and practices to facilitate the combination of employment and caring (Swan and Cooper, 2005; Yeandle et al, 2006). However, a persistent issue is the extent to which caring responsibilities can also jeopardise the health of employed carers themselves.
Working carers - men and women, in full- and part-time work - pay a considerable penalty in terms of their own health. Those with heavy caring responsibilities are 2-3 times more likely than non-carers to have poor general health. (Yeandle et al, 2006: 9)
With paid work normalising for women in the childbearing years, the increasing need for childcare is another issue: one reason for some women wanting to only work part-time in their fifties is so that they have time with their grandchildren. In Australia, around two thirds of informal childcare is provided by grandparents. In June 2002, 48.7% of all Australian children used some form of childcare. Of those who used informal care (32.9% of all children), 19.1% were cared for by grandparent/s (ABS 2002). In 1997, the estimated value of unpaid childcare that was done by grandmothers was over five thousand dollars per annum per woman for women aged 45-54, and almost three thousand dollars for women aged 55-65 (de Vaus, Gray and Stanton, 2003). There is also evidence that grandparental custody and primary care of grandchildren is an increasing phenomenon in Australia, resulting largely from parental drug use (COTA, 2003).
Looking forward
The majority of Australian women approaching 'retirement age' are either not retired or only partially retired. Of the 610,000 Australian women who were aged 55-59 in 2004, 55% were employed either full or part-time, 7% were looking for work, 2% were unemployed and 5% had never been employed for more than two weeks. Less than one third (31%) were retired. Of the employed women, 57% were working full-time and 43% were working part-time. Around seven percent of all employed women in this age group said that they never intended to retire (ABS, 2006b).
Recent policy initiatives aimed at encouraging older workers to remain in employment include gradually increasing the age at which women can access the age pension3, ongoing increases to the minimum age for accessing superannuation benefits, and the introduction of incentives for workers who stay on in employment beyond the Age Pension age (eg the Pension Bonus Scheme) (ABS, 2005b). It may be that the cohort of women now confronting retirement will be more disadvantaged than their mothers' generation, even though they have enjoyed greater freedom throughout their lives (English, 2000).
However, they may be less likely to need healthcare services to the same extent, or at the same age, as today's older women. On the other hand, they may have higher expectations for their health and be more demanding of such services. They are also likely to face a world where services are based increasingly on a user-pays system - for health care, nursing homes and services. It is also likely that many will face old age alone. Despite the trend that shows life expectancies for men and women are edging closer together, the higher death rates for males - exacerbated by the fact that most of the baby boomer women married older partners, coupled with high divorce rates for this group - means that almost two million Australian women may be living alone in 20 years. This is double the present number of elderly single female households (ABS 2005).
Quine and Carter (2004) argue that there is a paucity of published research on Australian baby boomers' expectations for their old age, and that there is a need for empirical research obtaining information directly from baby boomers themselves. Women's longer life expectancy than men's means that is important to have a sound empirical understanding of the nature of their current employment and retirement plans and patterns in order to consider the implications of the ageing of the Australian population for health and welfare services. The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health is strategically placed to explore questions that will contribute to the unfolding debates around issues of employment and productivity in an ageing Australia.
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