Choosing to Retire? A Study of Women’s Patterns for Retiring or Continuing to Work

Women of the baby-boom generation are the first generation of women to present an old age-retirement trajectory similar to the traditional male model. Using a narrative approach, we collected 20 life stories from older women, mostly retired, all born in Canada. We present five patterns that influenced respondents’ decisions to end their career or, inversely, postpone the moment of retirement: 1) “Choosing myself” to fully take advantage of the retirement years; 2) Rational retirement: the deliberate choice to stop paid employment and mourn one’s career; 3) The break: obligation to retire; 4) Retirement as an extension of the retirement of a spouse-breadwinner, and 5) Postponing retirement. Our analysis reveals that patterns vary, depending on socio-economic contexts and state of health, relationship to work, spouse’s retirement status, care work, and the desire for freedom. They also reflect life-long social roles associated with care work, remunerated work, housework, and civic commitments. The Aging-retirement trajectory depends on women’s collective and individual histories and the impact of gender on other intersecting social relations.