The arc of women’s working lives is changing - reaching higher levels when they’re younger and stretching out much longer - according to two new analyses of census, earnings and retirement data that provide the most comprehensive look yet at women’s career paths.
women
The arc of women’s working lives is changing - reaching higher levels when they’re younger and stretching out much longer - according to two new analyses of census, earnings and retirement data that provide the most comprehensive look yet at women’s career paths.
Over all, the paths look much more like men’s careers than they used to. Women are more likely than in previous generations to work at almost every point in their lives, including in their 20s and 30s when they often used to be home with children. Now, if mothers take breaks at all, it’s often not until their late 30s or early 40s - and those who leave are likely to return to the labour force.
Most striking, women have become significantly more likely to work into their 60s and even 70s, often full time, according to the analyses. And many of these women report that they do it because they enjoy it.
The data adds a bright chapter to the narrative of women’s progress in the world of work. Even though their participation in the labour force in the United States has flattened in recent years, and as mothers especially face serious challenges, women are working more than ever and getting fulfillment, not just income, from their jobs.
Nearly 30 percent of women 65 to 69 are working, up from 15 percent in the late 1980s, one of the analyses, by the Harvard economists Claudia Goldinand Lawrence Katz, found. Eighteen percent of women 70 to 74 work, up from 8 percent.
This rejection of retirement is more common among women with higher education and savings, though not confined to them. Those who are not working are more likely to have poor health and low savings, and to be dependent on Social Security and sometimes disability benefits.
For some women, the decision to keep working was unexpected and not necessarily welcome, because of late-in-life divorce, pension or real estate losses, or changes in Social Security.
If people work when they’re younger, economists say, they’re more likely to work when they’re older. And because women are marrying and having babies later, they spend more time pursuing careers first. That means that even if they take breaks to care of children, they are likely to return to work and to work past a typical retirement age.
The same thing is happening among women in their 60s in most developed countries, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The most telling discovery here, according to the Harvard researchers, was that women who enjoyed their jobs earlier in life were employed longer, independent of their education or earnings. When asked if they had enjoyed their jobs six to eight years earlier, 85 to 90 percent of women ages 59 to 63 said they had.
Diane Tavoian, 64, left college at 21 and worked hourly customer service jobs in manufacturing, in the military and most recently at the post office. She briefly tried retirement at age 61, but it didn’t last long: “It was just plain boring,” she said.
She is now a barista at Starbucks and finishing her bachelor’s degree through the company’s tuition coverage program. “The money is nice, of course, but I did it because I found I could not just stay at home,” said Ms. Tavoian, who lives in Covington, Tex. “I really like the fast pace of it, and I like showing the younger baristas that a frail old lady cannot just keep up with them but pass them by.”
Lee Ann Monfredini, 68, got her real estate license at age 53 after a career in hospital fund-raising and nonprofit consulting; she was out of the work force for several years when her children were young. “I feel 40,” said Ms. Monfredini, a broker in San Francisco. “I play bridge once a week and have lunch with women, but I’m really not that good at the retirement thing. And I love the joy of getting that big commission check.”
Helen Young Hayes managed $50 billion in investments at a mutual fund in Denver while raising five children. She missed spending more time with them - she watched videos of them after they went to bed - and five children were a lot of work. So, at 41, she stopped working.
A decade later, she returned to the work force, starting a corporation to match low-income people with careers. The idea grew out of volunteer work she had done during her time away.
“I just have too much energy and too much intensity to not be engaged,” said Ms. Young Hayes, 54. Working for 20 years before she left made re-entry easier, she said. “It gave me the confidence to realize there were no limits to my career.”
- Courtesy: Claire Cain Miller
The New York Times
