Aging populations are creating tremendous pressures on social
security systems throughout the world, lifting the need for reform
to the top of policy agendas. Proposed reforms often have different
implications for men and women. At the same time, traditional
family and gender roles are changing with the decline in fertility
rates and the rapid rise in women's participation in the paid labor
force.
While trying to adapt social security systems to the fiscal
demands of aging societies, policymakers face the compelling
challenge of how to design pension reforms that achieve fair
outcomes for women. Gender and Social Security Reform examines how
different countries are attempting to meet this challenge. Drawing
on comparative studies of European and Latin American countries
along with a series of case studies of individual countries, the
book provides insights into the gender dimensions of alternative
designs for reform. All of the countries studied have recently
reformed or are about to reform their pension systems, with a clear
trend towards tightening the link between contributions and
benefits in order to secure the long-term sustainability of
pensions. The book also alerts policymakers to other issues: Should
pension systems be gender-neutral or compensate for inequalities in
paid and unpaid labor? Does compensation preserve gender
discrimination? Are unisex life tables a reliable or fair
redistributive tool for women? Or should annuities be linked
directly to life expectancy, differentiated by sex and potentially
other factors? Does a minimum pension guarantee risk compromising
the principle of individual responsibility and work? How can
recognition for caring work be balanced with work incentives? What
can be done to help social security systems preserve freedom of
choice in terms of work-family balance for women, men or the modem
family unit as a whole?
In analyzing the gender implications of recent social security
policies and practices this book reframes the conventional
discourse of reform.
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