Women 'want to work longer'
Women 'want to work longer'
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Thursday, 23, Feb 2006 04:52
Women are much keener to work into old age than men, according to a new study.
Research by insurer Axa has found that while more than half of all men would love to retire early, just a third of women want to stop working before the state retirement age.
Furthermore, while men appear desperate to stop working as soon as they can afford to do so, women seem much happier with their jobs, with just four in ten women saying they would give up work tomorrow if they came into money, as opposed to 50 per cent of men.
Axa's Steve Folkard believes that women's long struggle against discrimination in the workplace means that they are more eager to continue climbing the working ladder into old age.
"Women have work opportunities like never before in the modern world of work and many are scaling the heights of the career ladder to claim responsible positions and the financial rewards that go with them," he said.
The study also shows that men and women have differing views about what constitutes old age, with women not viewing people as old until they hit 74, while men see anyone over 67 as elderly.
Both sexes were, however, in agreement that older workers still make good employees, with 93 per cent of female respondents and 88 per cent of men believing this to be the case.
Nevertheless, despite the findings, it appears that whether they like it or not, both men and women will have to work to an older age in the future, with work and pensions secretary John Hutton admitting earlier this month that an increase in the state pension age by 2020 was "inevitable".
Last November, pensions commissioner Adair Turner suggested that the retirement age should be raised to between 67 and 69 by 2050 in order to plug the projected pensions shortfall and increase state provision in retirement.