Gender Differences in Retirement in a Welfare State with High Female Labour Market Participation and Competing Exit Pathways

Abstract

In this article, we analyse whether and how, in the context of high female labour market participation and competing exit pathways, Finnish women’s retirement differs from men’s. We test for the influence of gendered life courses, social stratification, late career vulnerability, and sector. Using data from the Finnish Centre for Pensions, we created individual sequences of monthly income statuses between ages 57 and 65 for a cohort born in 1948 (N = 55,971). Following sequence analysis, we identified eight distinct trajectory clusters that represent the variety of labour market withdrawal through the competing exit pathways. We linked these clusters to a set of sociodemographic background variables from Finnish Longitudinal Employer–Employee Data. We find that women’s retirement trajectories do not differ substantially from men’s, but that the factors affecting the take-up of those trajectories show significant differences. Marital status, education, income, and especially public sector employment play a greater role in determining the timing and mode of women’s retirement. The findings suggest that women’s retirement is different because their marital status, education, and income have a stronger effect on their attachment to the labour market and because they work in particular female-dominated occupations.