Gender, Transitions and Turning Points: The Life Course and Older Workers’ Trajectories in Different US Occupations

This chapter interrogates the proposition that extending working life is an unproblematic policy measure introduced to address demographic ageing and increased pension costs. The implications of extending working life varies for workers in different occupations. The chapter draws on interview data from a qualitative study of 17 men and 20 women workers in the United States. Interviewees working either as teachers or in physically-demanding jobs such as care-giving for older people or cleaning narrated their work-life history and discussed their current work, future plans and their views on working longer. Analysis of different strands of their work-life trajectories – work, family, health – from a life course perspective reveals that workers may be channelled into particular kinds of employment and that advantage or disadvantage can accumulate across the life course. It supports previous research showing that physically-demanding work adversely affects workers’ health. Gendered expectations regarding the provision of care can result in disrupted careers for women, leading to lower pension provision and the need to continue working later. Such processes, combined with pension reforms and the increasingly precarious nature of employment can lead to poor economic and health outcomes for some workers. The implications of these findings for policy are discussed.