ABSTRACT
In 1978, major changes in the legislation governing both statutory and occupational retirement provision came into force. 1 These changes incorporated measures designed not only to improve the status of women as beneficiaries in their own right of state and occupational retirement-pension schemes, but also their entitlement, if married, to widows’ benefits. Thus, at one and the same time, such measures advanced the position of women as generators of their own financial independence in retirement, while yet confirming them in their traditional role as the financial dependants of their husbands. Herein lies the continuing paradox of retirement-pension provision as it relates to women.
