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Gender arrangements and pension systems in Britain and Germany: tracing change over five decades

Gender arrangements and pension systems in Britain and Germany: tracing change over five decades
Gender arrangements and pension systems in Britain and Germany: tracing change over five decades
This paper studies the modernisation of gender arrangements and the restructuring of pension systems in the United Kingdom and Germany since the 1950s. We firstly aim to pinpoint the time when pension programmes were apt components of the ‘strong bread-winner model’. Secondly, we explore the assumption that pension systems are tools of stratification, by comparing the ways in which the constraints and incentives of these pension systems have been in line with typical life courses of women.

Our paper argues that the constraints and incentives of pensions have altered quite significantly over time, questioning whether they have appropriately been characterised as components of strong breadwinner models over the long term. In the UK the pension system only supported the strong breadwinner model until the mid-1970s, while the German system never fully supported it. In addition, it is shown that the impact of pensions on women’s behaviour is relatively limited. At times, women’s lives were in accordance with the male breadwinner model, and they suffered high poverty risks despite having potential access to a more modern pension regime; during other periods, their employment choices were at odds with the strong directives issued by pension regulations to stay at home. This demonstrates the importance of taking other factors, such as cultural influences and other societal institutions into account when exploring the impact of social policies on citizens’ lives; but it also poses the question of whether pensions are really important building blocks of the breadwinner model.
pension reform, united kingdom, germany, gender arrangements, long term change, breadwinner models, modernisation
1652-8670
67-110
Meyer, Traute
ee469bf0-ab32-43ac-9f25-1261c24123fe
Pfau-Effinger, Birgit
e6fc0951-84b5-409b-ae96-0e4db38c1702
Meyer, Traute
ee469bf0-ab32-43ac-9f25-1261c24123fe
Pfau-Effinger, Birgit
e6fc0951-84b5-409b-ae96-0e4db38c1702

Meyer, Traute and Pfau-Effinger, Birgit (2006) Gender arrangements and pension systems in Britain and Germany: tracing change over five decades. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 1 (2), 67-110. (doi:10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.061267).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper studies the modernisation of gender arrangements and the restructuring of pension systems in the United Kingdom and Germany since the 1950s. We firstly aim to pinpoint the time when pension programmes were apt components of the ‘strong bread-winner model’. Secondly, we explore the assumption that pension systems are tools of stratification, by comparing the ways in which the constraints and incentives of these pension systems have been in line with typical life courses of women.

Our paper argues that the constraints and incentives of pensions have altered quite significantly over time, questioning whether they have appropriately been characterised as components of strong breadwinner models over the long term. In the UK the pension system only supported the strong breadwinner model until the mid-1970s, while the German system never fully supported it. In addition, it is shown that the impact of pensions on women’s behaviour is relatively limited. At times, women’s lives were in accordance with the male breadwinner model, and they suffered high poverty risks despite having potential access to a more modern pension regime; during other periods, their employment choices were at odds with the strong directives issued by pension regulations to stay at home. This demonstrates the importance of taking other factors, such as cultural influences and other societal institutions into account when exploring the impact of social policies on citizens’ lives; but it also poses the question of whether pensions are really important building blocks of the breadwinner model.

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More information

Published date: December 2006
Keywords: pension reform, united kingdom, germany, gender arrangements, long term change, breadwinner models, modernisation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 42823
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/42823
ISSN: 1652-8670
PURE UUID: 884a06ca-8c6f-4408-8997-19209aba5b5f
ORCID for Traute Meyer: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0767-8351

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 25 Jan 2007
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:16

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Contributors

Author: Traute Meyer ORCID iD
Author: Birgit Pfau-Effinger

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