The Impact of Life Course Employment and Domestic Duties on the Well-Being of Retired Women and the Social Protection Systems That Frame This

Abstract

Objectives: The article addresses whether specific combinations of employment and domestic duties over the life course are associated with variations in women’s health at the time of retirement. It also explores the differences of this relationship in four European welfare states. Method: Women from three waves of SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe) are grouped using sequence analysis. Using logistic regression models, group differences in later life depression and self-reported health are tested. Predicted probabilities are applied to analyze welfares’ differences. Results: The findings confirm that a combination of employment and domestic duties across the life course has a positive association with later life health. Being outside the labor market is detrimental for women’s health. Well-being across the life course is framed by the welfare context in which women live. Discussion: We suggest that further research is needed to explore the mechanisms linking work and care trajectories to poor health and enable appropriate interventions.

Adulthood Employment Trajectories and Later Life Mental Health before and after the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The stability and social protection involved in these working patterns and the consequent access to better financial status, medical care, health services, and housing conditions [ 34 , 35 ] are plausible mechanisms underlying this association with an advantaged mental health status in old age. In contrast, those who experience persistent informality and erratic working patterns, and those who mostly did not work, tend to replicate their accumulated social and financial disadvantages in worse mental health in later life [ 33 ].…”

“…Specifically, longitudinal studies show that advantaged employment pathways are systematically associated with better mental health in old age, including fewer mental illnesses and depressive symptoms [ 5 , 24 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Put in other words, constantly being out of the labor market across adulthood [ 33 ] or permanently working under stressful conditions [ 34 ] or adverse conditions (i.e., involuntary redundancy, weak labor market ties, and disadvantaged occupational status [ 27 , 35 ] lead to poor mental health in late life. According to these authors, the subsequent positive health outcomes among those following advantaged employment pathways are due to persistent adequate labor conditions that allow people to access better financial status, medical care, health services, and housing conditions, as well as to experience lower stress levels and higher community integration across their lives.…”

Gendered work-family life courses and late-life physical functioning: A comparative analysis from 28 European countries

“…Research has established strong evidence on the combined impact of these two life domains on different health outcomes, showing how adverse circumstances early in life accumulate and pose health risks at older ages (for a review, see Machů et al, 2022). Yet, life course research in social epidemiology has predominantly focused on how work-family trajectories affect self-reported measures of general health (e.g., Bennett & Waterhouse, 2018;McDonough et al, 2015;Zella & Harper, 2018 or mental well-being (e.g., Engels et al, 2021;Hernandez Saucedo et al, 2022;Ice et al, 2020;McDonough et al, 2015;Xue et al, 2021;Zella & Harper, 2020). This results in an incomplete picture, where it remains an open question as to whether combining work and family roles throughout the life course enhances or harms physical functioning in old age (Machů et al, 2022).…”

“…This results in an incomplete picture, where it remains an open question as to whether combining work and family roles throughout the life course enhances or harms physical functioning in old age (Machů et al, 2022). In addition, we know little about whether and how this may vary between men and women and across institutional contexts (Boye, 2011;Machů et al, 2022;Worts et al, 2016;Zella & Harper, 2018. This knowledge gap becomes especially relevant against the background of ongoing changes in gender roles and increasing labour market insecurity for both genders.…”

“…The configurations and pathways of employment, parenthood, and partnership histories also vary cross-nationally, due to differences in key aspects of countries' welfare state provisions, such as the characteristics of the labour market or the institutionalisation of family roles (Worts et al, 2016). Trajectories of work and family circumstances can be expected to vary according to the welfare state institutions (Anxo et al, 2011;Esping-Andersen, 1999;Fuwa & Cohen, 2007;Gershuny & Sullivan, 2003;Korpi, 2000;Orloff, 1993;Sainsbury, 1999), as well as their impact on women and men's health conditions (Adjei et al, 2017;Boye, 2011;Zella & Harper, 2018. Welfare state characteristics might exert an important role in moderating the negative influence of child-rearing trajectories on later-life health (Grundy, 2009;Grundy & Foverskov, 2016;Keenan & Grundy, 2019;Sironi, 2019) or other socioeconomic risks (Kleven et al, 2019;de Linde Leonard and Stanley, 2020;Lundberg et al, 2008).…”