The Retirement Process among Older Women in the United States

Recent changes in the retirement patterns of older women in the United States are examined and the uniformity of changes across occupations is evaluated. Results indicate that both the volume of retirement and labor force reentry increased; women increasingly experienced their first retirement at younger ages; and women's working life expectancy declined while nonworking life expectancy increased due to both declining working life expectancy and lower mortality. Many of these changes were fairly uniform across the occupational structure, maintaining the generally higher levels of working life expectancy in primary occupations. These patterns are compared to those previously observed for older men.