Norma A. Winston, The University of Tampa
and
Jo Barnes, The University of Waikato
The research on retirement until recently has been based largely on studies of men (Hanson and Wapner, 1994; Szinovacz, 1982). This was justified initially because most of the workers who were in a position to retire from the workforce were men. However, in the past decade, the number of working women who are predicted to spend most of their adult years in the workforce and therefore be in a position to plan for retirement has reached significant proportions (Dailey, 2000). Since research results based on studies of males cannot appropriately be generalised to females as a group this raises the question of how working women are shaping retirement for themselves.
The purpose of this research is to generate some descriptive, baseline data on how academic women, as a sub sample of all women, are planning for retirement. Comparisons are made between women in academia in the United States and New Zealand. The researchers chose to study academic women who were within approximately ten years of the traditional retirement age of 65.
The snowball sampling technique was used to identify respondents. The
Re-searchers began with women known to them in their working environment. The American data was gathered from women employed in three Tampa Bay Universities. In New Zealand, the data was gathered from women employed in all five of the universities in that country.
A total of 18 academic women aged between 52 and 69 participated in the study. Seven of the women resided in Florida and 11 in New Zealand. All were employed full-time as academics. In New Zealand, their length of service in academia ranged from 3½ years to 28 years while in the United States the range was from 20 to 30 years. Among the Americans, six of the women were married, one was divorced and one had never married. In the New Zealand sample, five of the women were married, two were in de-facto relationships and four were divorced or separated.
Data were gathered using unstructured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews. One to two hours were spent with each interviewee at the designated place of her choice (home, office, coffee shop and so on.) We had a list of general topics to guide us. However, our intention was to provide our participants with an opportunity to frame their own priorities and to be able to speak freely about their experiences of retirement and its planning. To initiate the dialogue we began by asking our respondents about their “work history” and their careers in academia. In most cases, this history included a synopsis of their educational qualifications and a chronological account of their working life as well as information related to family relationships and life challenges. Often during this first conversation, a great deal of information was gathered pertaining to the general topics on our list and it was often not necessary to ask direct questions. With the consent of the participants, each interview was tape recorded and transcribed for analysis. The analysis involved reading and re-reading the transcripts with the following research questions in mind:
· How is retirement defined by academic women?
· At what age do these women intend to retire?
· How do they prepare for their retirement?
· What expectations/plans do they have for their retirement?
· What concerns do academic women have about retirement?
· Are there differences between the New Zealand academic women and their counterparts in the United States?
The data were subject to additional analysis using NUDIST – a computer program for use with qualitative data.
The respondents were asked to indicate what retirement meant to them. Consistent with what has been reported in other studies, there was little agreement among the respondents as to the meaning of retirement (Talaga and Bechr, 1995). One 54-year-old New Zealander defined retirement in financial terms as, “Without paid employment. Yeah, that’s all it means.” Similarly, a 61 year old New Zealander said her definition of retirement was, “Stopping paid employment, really . I see it in a
moderately negative way. Yeah. You lose your job.”
Others, rather than defining retirement, talked about the value they placed on the event. A 69-year-old American woman responded with, “Well, retirement means to me something negative. It means a stop in doing the kinds of things I love to do.”
Another, a 57 year old American woman said, “I just never thought about
re-tiring. But retirement doesn’t mean anything positive to me.”
Some interviewees defined retirement in positive terms. The word ‘freedom’ came through several times in the interviews. According to one 57 year old American, “Retirement means freedom- time in which to do whatever I want, when I want.” In a similar vein, another said, “Retirement is giving up having to do things and being allowed to do those things that you’ve always wanted to do.”
Intended Age at Retirement:
Mandatory retirement at age 65 was done away with in The United States and New Zealand during the 1980’s. This paved the way for workers to determine for themselves the time of disengagement from the workplace. Given that, we asked the interviewees when they thought they would retire.
Just two of the respondents planned to retire as early as age 60. The first, an American divorcee, intended to take full advantage of the early retirement program offered at the college at which she was employed. Under this program one retires at age 60 and has 10 years at 40% of one’s last salary. This woman had planned for retirement over the long-term by paying into a retirement plan and making other investments. With these, plus Social Security at age 62, she felt that she could count on having a comfortable retirement.
The other woman who also planned to retire at age 60, a married New Zealander with two dependants, had made this decision because she was anxious to have time to write. Her family was very important to her as was her teaching. She said that she had spent too much time on those to the detriment of her writing. Hence, she saw retirement as removing at least some of those obstacles to her writing career.
Another respondent planned to retire between the ages of 62 and 65. She had suffered health-wise and is afraid that she will have to retire at age 62 because she is not physically strong. “If I feel wonderful, I’ll continue until I’m 65,” she said.
Four of the interviewees planned to retire at age 65. However, this date was definite for just one of those. In that person’s own words, “Well, I certainly don’t intend to go past age 65. …. I think you should have to retire at 65 because I think you need to allow the younger generation to have a shot at being an academic.”
Another interviewee said that age 65 was the date she was working toward in the financial sense. However, the health of an immediate family member and other financial matters may pre-empt that date. A third respondent who planned to retire at age 65 explained that achieving her goal was complicated by the fact that she has a partner who is sixteen years younger than herself. He didn’t see why she should retire while he continues to work. The dilemma was how to provide for both of them while in retirement.
The fourth interviewee who hoped to retire at age 65 said it depended on her husband who is 6 years older than her. “If I work till 65 and he’s 71 – if we wanted to do something very active – it might be a little late. But somewhere between 60 and 65 is when I’m going to retire.”
The remainder of the pre-retired respondents had no definite plans for retirement. A 63-year-old, married, New Zealander – a social research fellow - said that the research contracts keep coming and consequently she keeps working. “Well, I guess I’m waiting for the decision to be made for me,” she said. In other words, when the research contracts stopped coming she would be out of a job and that to her meant being retired.
In a different vein, a 55 year old divorcee from New Zealand with four dependants explained that it would be unrealistic from a financial perspective for her to set a retirement date. “I will actually only retire when I have to because I don’t see myself as being wealthy enough to manage on the pension
On another note, one American said,
“I’m 69 – I’ll be 70 in April and I’m not ready to discontinue my career yet. But I have begun some preliminary talks with my husband about retiring in 2005. And I feel that by that time I will have accomplished some goals that I set for myself professionally – and then I can go away with a good feeling that I’ve reached those goals.
Finally, another respondent from New Zealand, pointed out just how complicated planning to retire at a certain age can be. She had taken a job in the university nine years earlier. She had been paying into the superannuation fund for seven of those years but she had to have paid in a full ten years before the university would match the funds. In addition, she had taken study leave and would not be free from her obligation to pay that back for one more year. She had also heard, but had not verified, that if one works for the university for 15 years one is awarded six months pay upon leaving. All of these factors had to be taken into account in her decision-making. In addition, she is in a de-facto relationship. The two of them would like to retire at the same time so that they can enjoy their retirement together but a financial commitment resulting from a former marriage further complicates planning.
Preparation for Retirement:
The interviewees were encouraged to indicate the ways in which they had prepared for retirement. The interviewers probed, where necessary, for details of financial preparation, getting help with financial planning, and plans for a retirement lifestyle.
All of the women in the American sample had prepared financially for their retirement, although the majority of them had done so in a defacto way. That is, one of the conditions of their employment was that they and/ or their employer had to pay into a retirement fund. Consequently there was a pool of money there for them for their retirement. That along with the Social Security payments enabled these women to anticipate a modest to comfortable standard of retirement living.
Less than half of the women had made additional financial preparations for retirement. Two of the fourteen had hired the services of a financial planner. Another two had sought the advice of colleagues whom they respected and four had made investments outside of their retirement plans. Two more were married to men who were very successful in the world of business and had “taken care” of both partner’s retirements. All of the respondents either owned homes outright or in joint with their husband’s or had mortgages on homes that would be paid off by the time they retired. Thus their housing was secured.
The married respondents said that their husband’s had made plans for their joint retirements. However, two of these women had no idea of the details of the arrangements. The remaining three women had worked closely with their husbands in planning the financial side of their retirement. They were aware of the details and had tailored their contributions to their own retirement funds accordingly.
The single women in the American sample had, in general, made a greater effort to prepare for retirement than had the married women. It was as if they understood their vulnerability, being alone. As one woman put it, “I’ve always been single. And, so, it was even more important that I take care of myself and plan for a long retirement.” To the extent that American academic women felt insecure about their financial preparation for retirement, it had to do with having enough money to cope with the unexpected. The need to do major repairs to the house, for instance.
Initially, it appeared that the academics in New Zealand were less well prepared financially for retirement than the American academics. However, a more in-depth look at the data clarified the fact that it was the formerly married women (all of whom were in the New Zealand sample) who had entered higher education later than their married counterparts and were raising children alone who felt financially unprepared for retirement. The reality for them was that they were in the early stages of paying into retirement programs and therefore would not be able to accumulate much over the rest of their working lives.
Most of the New Zealand women were members of the University Superannuation Scheme. That is an employer/employee contribution scheme. Very few women had properties other than the house they were living in and most of them were still paying mortgages. Only two women had sought advice from any sort of investment counsellor and only one woman had attended a retirement seminar arranged by the University. Most of them felt that there was little point in taking time out for these events. From a financial viewpoint, they did not have money to invest and very little to save so whatever the financiers might say seemed irrelevant.
Many of the New Zealand women were quite apprehensive about their financial future. This is probably because the New Zealand government has changed its policies regarding responsibility for its elderly. Until the 1980s New Zealand was regarded as a model welfare state and for the baby boom generation adequate old age pensions were an expectation. Things began to change with the introduction of neo-liberal philosophies that moved toward a “user-pays” system. Government employees, including academics were eligible to contribute towards what they called, “Government Superannuation.” This was a benefit defined scheme which was not only tax free but also inflation adjusted. The scheme was closed in 1994 but those who were contributors at the time are entitled to full benefits. Those women who were members of this scheme, or married to men who would benefit from the scheme, seemed to be fairly optimistic in monetary terms about their retirement.
There was a considerable difference in terms of financial preparation for retirement among the never married and married women. These differences were to some extent the result of their work histories. As has been the case with married women in general, the married respondents in this sample either commenced their academic work later (compared to single women and men in academia) and/or took breaks in their work careers for childbearing and child-rearing. Many also worked a second shift (Hochschild, 1991) taking care of the home and children while working full or part-time. These scenarios are known to affect salary and promotion prospects which in turn affect levels of payment into superannuation or pension plans for retirement (Kokrda and Cramer, 1996).
Activities in Retirement:
Given that most of the women in the sample were not actively oriented toward their retirement it is not surprising that few had many ideas about what they would do when they reached that stage in life. As one New Zealander said,
“Well, that’s a bit of a problem and that’s why I’m not wildly keen on retiring. Because I like what I do … the academic work that I do …and I’m not one of these people who’s got some other alternative life lined up that I’m just waiting to retire in order to get launched into.”
There was just one woman in the sample who had a clear plan for her retirement. A single, American academic, who in addition to teaching and doing research, actively pursued several hobbies, including crocheting, sewing her own clothes and playing the dulcimer while maintaining a wide circle of friends. She felt that these activities, in addition to continuing her research, would be sufficient to sustain her in retirement.
The remainder of the interviewees, when asked what they expected to do in their retirement offered one, perhaps two suggestions almost anecdotally. Most represented a continuation of the things they were already doing now. The majority of the interviewees wanted to continue with certain aspects of their academic lives – but in a less structured way. Some wanted to continue teaching -time. Others wanted to continue doing research and/or writing. Travel was the second most commonly mentioned expectation – assuming sufficient finances to do so. Some of the respondents saw retirement as offering them the opportunity to spend more time with family (particularly with grandchildren), to garden, to engage more in household maintenance, to read books they don’t have time to read now or to play more tennis.
None of these women planned to chart new territory in their retirement Most of the activities they mentioned as possibilities for retirement represented a continuation of the things they were already doing at the time of the interview.
Concerns about Retirement
Three major concerns about retirement were expressed by American academics. The first was that of status maintenance. (Similar findings have been reported by Price, 2000). The women feared a loss of status once they dropped out of the workforce. One woman put it this way, “As a retired professor – or even as a professor emeritus – would I be respected professionally?” Another said, “I think you lose a little of your prestige after you retire.” For this reason, no doubt, two of the respondents indicated that it was important that they be given emeritus status at retirement. “Without that (one reported) I would feel as if I had not completed my work!” Related to this, another concern expressed was that of finding satisfaction in whatever contribution one could make to society, “being active --- knowing that you’re useful.”
The greatest concern of all for American women however was the cost of health care. The lack of an affordable national health care program left all of the respondents all too aware that one major or chronic, long term illness could bankrupt them and leave them with insufficient resources for the rest of their retirement. In comparison, New Zealand has had a universal health care system since 1941. Consequently the cost of health care was not reported as a concern by the academics in New Zealand.
For the New Zealand academics, the most commonly mentioned concerns were boredom and inactivity. One woman described it thus:
“My real concern about retirement is that I might get bored, and the one thing I can’t bear is being bored, and I really … I’m one of these people who needs a very structured sort of life…. If I don’t have a reason to get up in the morning I get depressed quite easily. So, that’s the thing that kind of scares me a bit about retiring. It’s sort of finding oneself suddenly outside all the structures and not really having a role any longer.”
The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, to describe the manner in which academic women of the baby-boom generation are shaping their retirement and second, to make comparisons between academic women in two different countries: the United States and New Zealand. There were more similarities between the women from the two countries than differences. In terms of similarities, the findings present a picture of a group of academic women who have not yet taken control of their own retirement. There was little agreement among the women as to what retirement meant or as to the age at which they would retire. Furthermore, some of the women indicated that they could not make their own retirement decisions independent of others - for instance, a husband, a parent or a child. This is, of course, what we have expected of women in the past - to put their own goals and aspirations second to those of others in their social spheres.
The findings indicate that retirement planning is contingent upon a number of factors including: family, finances, health, having a feeling of a sense of completion at work, and family. Not all of these factors are relevant to each woman, nor do those that are relevant necessarily operate in the same order.
The women shared concerns about lack of role continuity and loss of status after retirement. Some feared being bored: some voiced the importance of maintaining some semblance as an academic by continuing to write or to teach part-time but they had no clear plan in place to follow through with these goals. Role change is, of course, an option but no one mentioned taking on new roles in retirement. Similarly, some of the interviewees felt that being awarded emeritus status would be a salve on the wound inflicted by retirement but they were uncertain about the likelihood of it being granted.
Most of the respondents spoke in some way to the possible inadequacy of their financial preparation for retirement. The women who were the most severely disadvantaged financially were the divorcees who had come to the business of preparing for their own future relatively late in life.
One finding that represents a break with tradition was that several of these pre-retirement academic women were anticipating staying in the workforce well into their 70’s. This is more than five years beyond what used to be the age of mandatory retirement and greater than seven years past the average retirement age of 62 for men in the U.S. and New Zealand. Why would this be the case? It is simply that these baby boomers realise that they will need to work into their seventies to be financially prepared for retirement? Or, are there other reasons for this choice. Are these women planning to work longer than men, because they prefer working to the alternative of being at home or is it that having entered the workforce later than men they feel they need more time toward the end of their careers to accomplish their goals? Further studies are needed to provide answers to these questions.
With regard to the differences between the American and the New Zealand academics, it is important to underscore that cross-cultural comparisons enable us to study how different structural arrangements in societies affect adaptation to the same phenomenon – in this case, retirement. For instance, a well organized and stable system of retirement in America has enabled academic women there to prepare for a comfortable retirement. The lack thereof in New Zealand has left some academic women feeling that a financially comfortable retirement is an unattainable goal for them. Similarly, the government backed, National Health Care Plan in New Zealand makes affordable health care available to all citizens both before and after retirement. Such is not the case in the United States where the costs of medical care for a serious or prolonged illness could be sufficient to impoverish a person.
In closing, we remind the reader that the findings reported here were based on the study of a very small, non-random population and are therefore not generalizable.
The descriptive data that has been presented will best be used as a basis for designing larger studies using random samples of academic women.
Furthermore, it would be wise to do comparative studies with younger cohorts of academic women. It seems reasonable to predict that, having benefited from the mistakes made by their predecessors, the younger cohorts would be more proactive in shaping their own retirements and preparing for them.
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