Introduction

Extending working life and increasing the employment rates among older workers has been a major policy focus in Portugal over the last two decades in a general context of demographic decline and population ageing, as well as concerns about the financial sustainability of social security. The declining trend in the birth rate and low fertility rates is particularly worrying in countries similar to Portugal, where the Synthetic General Fertility Index (ISF) fell from 3.20 in 1960 to 1.23 in 2014 (Pordata, no date). Low fertility rates, along with the decrease in the proportion of individuals registered as economically active, the rise in average life expectancy and increasing numbers of older people, have all been seen as factors placing increasing strain on the Portuguese social security, pension and health systems.

A comprehensive national strategy regarding extended working life has never been fully developed in Portugal as policies have developed in a fragmented, ad hoc basis. Moreover, policies and incentives to extend working life have tended to be gender-blind and have ignored the respective gendered implications of people being retained in the labour market (Bould and Casaca, 2012). Simultaneously, the urgent need for formal care provision has been largely disregarded by policy debates and reforms. The lack of attention to the issue of formal care provision is especially critical in countries such as Portugal, where the availability of such provision has always been rather low (Casaca and Bould, 2012). Austerity reforms have imposed further cuts and restrictions on welfare provision in a context where people, and women in particular, live longer but are often in need of care. In fact, healthy life expectancy has not increased very quickly. Data show that in 2013, life expectancy at birth is higher for women than it is for men (84 and 77.6 years, respectively); yet, when healthy life expectancy is considered, figures are lower for women (62.2 years) than for men (63.9 years). With regard to life expectancy after 65, women can expect to live healthily 9.3 years longer, whereas men can expect to live healthily for another 9.6 years at the same age (Eurostat, no date).