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We need less 'boomer bashing' and more stories of better futures for all

By Monika Merkes - posted Tuesday, 20 January 2004


Women in the focus groups told me that they intended to provide unpaid community and caring work after the age of 65 years. The survey data indicated that women in the baby boom generation were equally as likely as older women to be already volunteering (when work hours were taken into account) and equally likely to anticipate volunteering in retirement. Slightly more than one in three women said that they were looking forward to having more time for volunteer work. Twice as many baby boom women looked forward to having more time for volunteering in retirement than were currently volunteers.

Unlike plans for paid work, the enthusiasm for future volunteering went across occupational backgrounds. An analysis of survey data showed that the women were more likely to look forward to volunteering in retirement if they were already volunteers, were in excellent health, and felt frequently happy. Financial security and occupational status had little impact on anticipations of volunteering in retirement, nor did birthplace, language spoken at home, marital status, or whether the women had dependent children. The motivations for voluntary work mentioned in the focus groups included a sense of caring for the family and the community, meaningful and useful activities in later life, and “giving back something to the community”.

The women who participated in this research expressed concerns for the care of their ageing parents and other relatives. They found the required support services in short supply, and commented that governments had reduced entitlements and cut services such as nursing home care and carer support. Many of the women in the focus group discussions reported that they juggled paid work and caring responsibilities, which often left them exhausted and with insufficient free time. They anticipated that in the future the expectations on women’s time from partners, children and older relatives would increase.

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What are the solutions?

The current “boomer bashing” and ageing-population-crisis discourse are dangerous and divisive. These “divide and conquer” strategies will be used by governments, the media, insurance and finance companies for their own purposes. For example, it could be argued that the crisis rhetoric associated with population ageing has already been exploited by neo-liberal governments to promote privatisation of pensions.

In contrast, population ageing should inspire us to engage in a discourse with new stories about better futures for all, equity, partnership and ageing as a resource. These new stories require social policies that seek to achieve:

  • more flexible workplaces;
  • the choice – not the compulsion – to opt for a longer working life;
  • equality in the workforce for women and men, young and older people;
  • opportunities to engage in paid and unpaid work;
  • recognition for unpaid community and caring work;
  • better supports for people with caring responsibilities;
  • a much better resourced education system and opportunities for lifelong learning;
  • the eradication of inequities in retirement income systems;
  • better protection for people who rent;
  • protection for particularly disadvantaged groups, such as those in ill health, with few financial resources and/or no significant social networks;
  • environmental sustainability;
  • income and pension systems that reflect the diversity of socially useful paid and unpaid work provided by individuals throughout their lives; and
  • the availability of public pensions as a safety net payment or, preferably, a guaranteed minimum income as a citizens income for people of all ages.

The development and implementation of such policies require visional political, business and community leadership as well as an inclusive process of consultation and citizen participation. It’s time to move on from the boomer bashing and tackle the issues that really matter to all of us.

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Foresight – the journal of future studies, strategic thinking and policy has recently dedicated a whole issue (Volume 5, Number 6, 2003) to the topic of ageing futures. Monika Merkes has contributed the article Women's working futures - views, policies and choices to this issue (pp. 53-60).



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About the Author

Monika Merkes is a social researcher and policy consultant who has worked in state and local governments, the community sector and academia.

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