Re-employment Pathways and Pension Inequality for Retired Women in China

Abstract Previous literature concentrates on China's pension systems and reforms from a macro-level and financial perspective. The gendered pension inequality regarding retirement and re-employment of older women has been ignored to date, and this study set out to address this lacuna. The quantitative research method was adopted in this study. Four hundred women respondents, aged between 55 to 65, who reached the compulsory retirement age were involved and selected in four cities in Fujian Province. A multinomial logistic model was introduced to analyse data, such as re-employment methods, pension incomes and actual retirement age, to explore links between pension schemes and re-employment modes. A significant pension inequality in pension income among retired women in urban China is reported, mainly between enterprise workers/ freelancers and public-sector employees. The study found that respondents' actual retirement age is often older than the compulsory retirement age. This discrepancy may be attributed to the heavy family-care duties that women often bear, which can lead to increased employment after retirement. Gender norms play a significant role in this, as women are more likely to face trade-offs between work/retirement and family care needs throughout their lives. The lack of improvement in gendered re-employment pathways for women reflects the broader patterns of inequality within the current pension scheme in China, highlighting the challenges that women face due to societal expectations.