Pension Saving in a Gendered Lifecourse

Abstract

Despite automatic enrolment in work pension schemes, private saving for pensions in the UK is relatively low, with most people under-pensioned in later life and reliant on the state pension. In this book, Hayley James shows that equally significant is that women save far less for old age than men. Indeed, her detailed research reveals the ways in which pension saving, as an everyday practice of finance, is shaped by gender and how this evolves over the lifecourse. The book challenges the hetero-patriarchal assumptions in pension systems by demonstrating the ways in which they are not gender-neutral since they assume behaviours that marginalize the lived experiences of women. The book makes a compelling case to resolve gendered inequalities in pensions by changing pension provision to better suit the realities of lived experience.