ABSTRACT
Current retirement attitudes and behaviour are generally considered to be fixed, when in fact they are period-specific. Thane suggests that most older women who had a permanent occupation recorded in the Census continued to work past the age of 65, and they admitted to later retirement ages than men. During the early twentieth century, there was an attempt to divide people of working age into the fully employed, the unemployed and the retired. As the labour market restructured and casual work became less available, retirement and unemployment became common terms. Finally, there is the contribution of new pension legislation. It is possible that the introduction of old age pensions at the beginning of the century may have influenced retirement patterns. Pre-retirement planning was introduced to encourage a positive active retirement life-style. It also contributed to the development of a leisure-based expectation of retirement.
