Sally Bould
Research project
Our aim is to specify the impact of motherhood on extent of financial difficulty of retired women in comparison to the financial difficult among retired men. The countries to be included, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and Italy represent a variety of welfare regimes with different policies in place to protect mothers and to reconcile work and family life. This research is necessary in order to proceed with public pension reform that does not leave some older adults, and especially mothers, without adequate social protection. Older adult women are vulnerable because as widows they often live in one person household where there are no economies of scale.
The Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) presents a unique opportunity to examine the impact of motherhood on the economic situation of older women under different welfare state regimes. These large data sets contain retrospective information on the person’s life course (Cf. SHARELIFE the third wave of SHARE; www.share-project.org). They provide the ability to analyze the impact of diverse experiences of motherhood as well as marriage and career on men’s and women’s economic well being during the retirement years. Both data sets contain standard questions concerning an “orderly career” so that motherhood can be analyzed independently from a woman’s career in the workforce. These samples will provide adequate cases for a detailed analysis, including those who live alone. Since single person households are most at risk of low income in retirement this research can provide a better understanding of this risk as well as options for better inclusion and social protection of these vulnerable households.
The 2000 Lisbon Declaration set about to improve the situation of women with the goal of equal economic independence for men and women in the EU. The issue of economic independence for men and women in the retirement years rests largely on the security of the income received after leaving one’s regular job or if the person never worked at a regular job, after reaching age 50. And the security of this income is the cumulative result of different life trajectories. For women the pathway towards economic security or insecurity in retirement is much more complex (George 2009). A key variable in this research is that of motherhood.
This research will not only bring together researchers from the countries examined but will also provide the basis for a policy analysis of implemented or proposed public pension reform. Please see the discussion of benefits below.
Biography
Sally Bould is Fellow at the Gerontology Institute, University of Massachusetts, Boston and Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of Delaware where she had been on the Faculty teaching the Sociology of Aging for more than 20 years. She currently has an appointment as Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Study of Poverty, Population and Socio-Economic Policy (CEPS), Differdange, Luxembourg. She has published numerous articles in the areas of women and aging, poverty, and family with a focus on policy. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Selected publications
'The cost of a child, mother’s employment behaviour and economic insecurity in Europe', with I. Crespi & G. Schmaus, International Review of Sociology / Revue Internationale de Sociologie, vol. 22, no. 1, 2012, pp. 5-23.
‘Equivalence scales and the Cost of Children: The case of household splits’, with G. Schmaus, Schmollers Jahrbuch, vol. 131, 2011, pp. 369-380.
‘Aging populations, chronic diseases, gender and the risk of disability’, with S.F. Casaca, Working Paper Socius, no. 02/2011, ISEG, 2011.
‘Hidden Gender Inequalities in Health Care for Older Adults: Equal treatment does not mean equal results’, in J. Kronenfeld (ed.), Research in the Sociology of Health Care, vol. 28, 2010, pp. 231-246.
‘Gender Equality post-separation in Contemporary Europe: The case of income’, with G.S. Schmaus & C. Gavray, in T. Addabbo, M. Arrizabalaga, C. Borderías & A. Owens (eds), Home, Work and Family: Gender and Well-being in Modern Europe, Ashgate Publishing, Farnham, Surrey, 2010.
‘Women’s Work: The measurement and the meaning’, with C. Gavray, AeExequo, vol. 18, 2008, pp. 57-83.
‘Critical resources for poor families: A critique of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals’, in M. Ahmad & S.L. Lodhi (eds), Poverty reduction: Policies and global integration, ISOSS Publications, Lahore, 2008, pp. 17-36.
‘Oldest Old’, in K. Markides (ed.), Encyclopedia of Health and Aging, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, 2007, pp. 436-438.
