ABSTRACT
This chapter starts by reviewing background changes in family and female labour force participation and their relevance for pensions design: changes in the gender division of labour and in private lifes influence redesigning pension’s arrangements as much as pressures from population ageing and fiscal unsustainability do. Women tend to work more frequently in the public sector where earnings are lower. With closer links between contributions and pension benefits, shorter working lives and lower wages of women will result in lower female pensions in the future – and promoting gender equality on the labour market is essential for equality in the pension system under Notional Defined Contribution schemes. The chapter stresses the result "that the poverty risk for older women is clearly higher in Europe 15 (22%) than in the new Member States (13%)". It concludes with a short review of recent pension reforms in single European countries and their likely impact on women's income situation in the future.
