Gender, Pensions and the Lifecourse: How Pensions Need to Adapt to Changing Family Forms

An emerging consensus sees British pension policy as unravelling. Yet the gender impact of expanding private pension provision and relying increasingly on means-testing has been largely overlooked.

This book examines key issues such as:

how pension choices over the lifecourse are structured by gender, class and ethnicity;

the impact of changing patterns of partnership and parenthood on pension building;

the distributional impact of privatising pensions;

questions about individualisation of rights, survivor benefits, a citizen's pension and means-testing;

the EU dimension - comparing alternative strategies for improving gender equity.

The book is essential reading for teachers, researchers and students in social gerontology, sociology, social policy and women's studies; practitioners in social work and welfare rights; policy makers concerned with income in later life; and all those who wish to improve their understanding of pensions issues.

Jay Ginn is a Senior Research Fellow in the Sociology Department of Surrey University and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender.