In this blog Dr Athina Vlachantoni and Professor Jane Falkingham talk about their research into gender and old-age pension protection in Asia, as discussed in their chapter in ‘Social Protection for Older Persons Social Pensions in Asia‘
The gender implications of the design and implementation of old age pension protection systems arise because few systems take women’s increasingly diverse life courses into account. In our chapter on gender and pensions in Asia we examined the strengths and weaknesses of contributory and non-contributory systems from women’s perspective, in the context of changing demographic and socio-economic patterns in Asia, such as population ageing and women’s participation in the informal labor market.
Providing old-age social protection for women is a major policy challenge, as women’s working lives tend to be more diverse than men’s, often including periods of care-giving and part-time work. In addition, women make up the majority of workers in the informal sector, and are often excluded from mainstream contributory pension systems designed for formal workers. Such patterns mean that across the world, women are more likely than men to experience poverty in old age, because of behavioural or life-course differences between men and women, and institutional features of modern pension systems. At the same time, gender differences permeate patterns of life expectancy and labour market participation.
From a women’s perspective, social pensions present a number of advantages. For example, they offer a safety net for informal workers with low earnings and few or no pension contributions. In addition, as the eligibility criteria of social pension schemes often include conditions that women are more likely to meet than men, such as reaching older age or being widowed, social pensions are more likely to target older women than men. Social pensions may also be used by policymakers and aid organisations as a mechanism for promoting greater gender equality. Finally, in addition to reducing poverty, social pensions can affect intra-family dynamics, gender relations and decision-making processes within the household by affording women greater financial security.
However, social pensions have limitations:as the level of benefits in most countries is low and hardly sufficient to lift beneficiaries out of poverty. At the same time, the effectiveness of social pensions depends on the extent to which they fit with contributory systems of social protection, as well as broader systems of protection including health care provision.
Dr Athina Vlachantoni and Professor Jane Falkingham are researchers at the Centre for Research on Ageing and ESRC Centre for Population Change at the University of Southampton.