Working Lives Research Institute
Dr Sian Moore, Bridget Henderson, Alison Gosper
July 2005 - August 2006
HE ESF
The project will explore the experiences of older women (over 50) in the contemporary labour market in England, and the barriers they face, in and outside work, to full employment participation. Participation rates in employment for all women have been rising over the past two decades, but to a lesser degree for women over 50; women in this age group are more likely to be working part-time and on lower pay than older men, factors which contribute to low late-life incomes. At the same time, discussions on increasing the participation in the labour market of both older men and women have often made little differentiation between the two groups. This project will therefore examine how age and gender interact for older women, and explore the factors influencing their labour market participation.
Issues to be examined
The research will explore older women’s working life histories to date, and how the labour market looks to them currently. It will address the experience of barriers to participation in the labour market, both within paid employment and outside of work; and for those in employment, the extent of occupational and horizontal segregation, and full and part-time work. A further focus will be an examination of equal pay audits within employing organisations, the extent to which age is audited and how this interacts with other variables, such as gender and race. The project will focus in addition on whether there is a distinctive experience for older women - the interaction of age and gender - compared with experience of age discrimination against older people as a whole, and for black and ethnic minority older women, the interaction of age, gender and race.
Proposed methodology
The research will include a series of 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews with older women in three local labour markets in England, to develop a deeper understanding of the complex nature of women’s decisions about employment through their working life histories. To provide a context to the semi-structured interviews, a quantitative large-scale study of older women in employment will explore on a wider scale barriers to participation and labour market experiences.
