Gender, age and flexible working in later life

Bibliographic Data

ID2373906
AuthorsWendy Loretto (0000-0003-1313-1635, University of Edinburgh Business School, UK), Sarah Vickerstaff (0000-0003-2572-3582, University of Kent)
Year2015
Volume29
Issue2
Pages233-249
Publication date2015-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWork Employment and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0950-0170 • E-ISSN: 1469-8722
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0950017014545267
OpenAlexW2045042390
LanguageEN
Citations received59
References cited38

In many countries economic and social concerns associated with ageing populations have focused attention onto flexible forms of working as key to encouraging people to work longer and delay retirement. This article argues that there has been a remarkable lack of attention paid to the role of gender in extending working lives and contends that this gap has arisen because of two, inter-related, oversights: little consideration of relationships between gender and flexible working beyond the child-caring phase of life; and the prevailing tendency to think of end of working life and retirement as gender-neutral or following a typical male trajectory. The findings of a qualitative study of people aged 50+ in the UK challenge some of the key assumptions underpinning the utility of flexible work in extending working lives, and provide insight into the ways in which working in later life is constructed and enacted differently for men and women

Sociology · Underpinning · Work (physics · Working life · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Psychology · Retirement, Disability, and Employment · Social Policy and Reform Studies