Women have traditionally married men a few years older than them, but it looks like this is one more now mal-adaptive social practice. A report out of Australia makes one of those obvious but important points, when the men retire, they strongly tend to want their wives to retire at the same time, which further reduces (after children, caring responsibilities etc) their pension contributions, and hence final pensions.
The median superannuation balance for women aged over 65 is less than 5 per cent of that saved by men of the same age, according to the study by the Melbourne Institute’s Diana Warren and the Australian Government Office for Women.
“We’re at last seeing that disruptions to work from family and other matters are far more likely to affect women than men,” said Julie Bishop, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women’s Issues.
“Women are more likely to be pressured into early retirement by their partners, doctors and employers than retire from their own decisions.”
Women, however, want the men to stay at work for as long as possible. The cynics will say this is for many but I suspect the desire for personal space has a lot more to do with it – lots of marriages break-up, or get very unhappy, when the couple are forced together on the retirement of one or both.
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