The Gendered Economy Pension Saving in a Lifecourse

Hayley James seeks to challenge the hetero-patriarchal assumptions in pension provision. She examines how pension systems are not gender-neutral, and argues that, to resolve gendered inequalities in pensions, we need to change pension systems to better suit the realities of lived experience. 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.

Pages: 160, Paperback, Agenda Publishing