Swiss Pension Policy and the Construction of a Gendered Old Age

• In Event: 499 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Work, Retirement, and Economic Security

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first is to provide an overview of Swiss pension policy, the specifics of which are generally unknown to U.S. scholars. The second, larger goal, is to show how age and gender relations, over the life course and in later life, converge in these policies, thereby constructing the dependence of Swiss elders, especially older women. Although the notion that dependence in later life as constructed is not new one, two key issues central to this construction are often overlooked: first, the age relations that give rise to ageism; and second, the ways in which age relations intersect with gender to shape dependence. I demonstrate that, as a result, even well-intentioned policy frameworks such as that in Switzerland, can reinforce ageism and dependence (read as “burden”), particularly among old women, rather than eradicate these.

Author

• Toni Calasanti, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University