Despite automatic enrolment in work pension schemes, private saving for pensions in the UK is relatively low, with most people under-pensioned in later life and reliant on the state pension. In this book, Hayley James shows that equally significant is that women save far less for old age than men. Indeed, her detailed research reveals the ways in which pension saving, as an everyday practice of finance, is shaped by gender and how this evolves over the lifecourse. The book challenges the hetero-patriarchal assumptions in pension systems by demonstrating the ways in which they are not gender-neutral since they assume behaviours that marginalize the lived experiences of women. The book makes a compelling case to resolve gendered inequalities in pensions by changing pension provision to better suit the realities of lived experience.

This compelling book challenges the idea that women are simply ‘poor men’ in pension systems. Hayley James shows with clarity and originality how gendered lifecourses shape saving, and why pensions must be reimagined to reflect the realities of diverse lives.

An essential read for anyone studying the complicated worlds of pensions and gender. Hayley James unpacks the complexities of financial systems and their impact on gender, explaining them in a meaningful way. The book offers profound insights into how gender and systemic thinking shape retirement outcomes, making it invaluable for anyone studying either of these areas.

James sets out to give us ‘Invisible Women’ for pensions and succeeds in powerfully challenging implicit assumptions and structural biases. The book opens our eyes to ways in which these undermine gender equality in our retirement savings system.

Hayley James is Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Personal Financial Wellbeing at Aston Business School.