Gender Dimensions of Pensions Systems: Policies & Constraints for the Protection of Older Women
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: September 28, 2015
WUNRN
UN Women – https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2015/7/dps-gender-dimension
GENDER DIMENSIONS OF PENSION SYSTEMS: POLICIES & CONSTRAINTS
FOR PROTECTION OF OLDER WOMEN
Author/Editor – Camila Azra – For UN Women Progress of
the World’s Women 2015-2016
Direct Link to Full 46-Page Document:
This paper documents the pervasiveness of women’s lack of
income security in old age across a large number of countries, but also points
to a number of important policy measures that can be taken to address gender
pension gaps. It focuses on how pension systems interact with other social and
labour market conditions over women’s life courses to increase or decrease
gender inequalities in old age. It reviews pension systems to pinpoint the key
sources of gender inequality in they way they are structured. The paper shows
that crucial policy choices for the protection of women must take into account
the conditions for entitlements in pension systems, the types of transfers that
are promoted between women and men, the policy tools available to offset gender
differences in paid work, earnings and unpaid work and the protection of the
most vulnerable social groups through redistributive benefits. The paper concludes
with some recommendations to make pension systems more gender equitable and
suggests that policies aimed at achieving gender equality in pension rights and
benefits need to work on several complementary fronts (including measures
regarding pension system design, but also labour market regulation and the
reconciliation of work and family life) and consider the diversity of women’s
situation across social strata as well as across countries. This paper was
produced for UN Women’s flagship report Progress of the
World’s Women 2015-2016.
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