Aging & Social Change: Fourteenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Extended working lives (EWL) are relevant for ageing societies, and it is important to understand facilitators and hinders. In our study we examined the family caregiving histories of older workers based on 100 problem- centred interviews from Germany, Sweden, Poland and the UK (25 interviews in each country) using thematic content analysis (Kuckartz, 2018). The sample consists of working or unemployed people of age 55 and older with or without pension receipt. Results show challenges concerning reconciling family and work, with gender differences across the four countries that mainly refer to work-related strategies to deal with reconciliation issues. Our findings highlight that women’s work-family experiences are not only shaped by caregiving responsibilities, but also depend on the life course stage in which they occur. For example, single mothers are often urged to EWL, while female carers for older relatives plan to exit the labour market before statutory pension ages. Our analysis show how framework conditions and different individual coping strategies can help or hinder women and men in overcoming family related challenges in working life. The results can be used for reducing EWL-inequalities between genders but also due to marital status and economic situation.