Introduction

Gender divisions in material provision in later life are profound: most of the world's aged are women, and on average they are much poorer than men. These differentials are clearly exposed by an examination of the financial circumstances of individuals who live alone in old age. They result from diverse social policies formed during the 20th century, in countries with different types of governments, different cultures and different histories. Evidently, such persistent and pervasive gender effects cannot be random; how and why things should be so unequal is a substantive concern of feminist, and to a lesser extent mainstream, scholarship.

In the developed world, the welfare state, whether reinforcing or ameliorating this gendered condition of older women, is perceived to be under threat. As Bonoli and Gay-des-Combes outline elsewhere in this volume, all western European countries have been examining and reforming one of their greatest welfare expenditure items, their pension systems. Many reasons have been identified for the stress to these systems, the ageing of the population being perhaps the most significant for pensions, but also dramatic social and political changes (Pierson, 2001). Later marriage, later childbirth, the burgeoning of childbirth outside marriage, increases in single parent and lone adult family units and increasing rates of relationship breakdown are the salient features of family change. These changes in family structures at the micro-social level have been accompanied at the macro-level by globalisation, the move from manufacturing to service employment in post-industrial economies, and the so-called neo-liberal consensus on the importance of the market economy for social welfare provision. In pension terms, the convergence of these factors raises questions of gender inequality in material provision in later life. How older men and women will fare financially in the light of such myriad changes – particularly as marriage becomes less likely to last into old age because of rising divorce rates – becomes an important question of concern. In this chapter the prospective financial position of divorced women in retirement in England and Wales1 is viewed from two convergent perspectives. First, the United Kingdom's location within welfare state theory as a paradigm male breadwinner nation state is reviewed. The meaning of this for the pension provision of women, especially those who will live alone, is considered.