Challenges to Canada's Retirement Income System: Understanding Gender Differences in Retirement Saving Decisions

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One of the most fundamental changes in the Canadian economy in recent years has been women's growing participation in the labour market. In the mid 1970s, less than 50 per cent of women between the age of 20 and 65 who were either married or living in a common-law relationship participated in the labour market. Today, this percentage is over 75 per cent. The majority of women now have their own incomes, and have control over these incomes. This means that while the majority of today's senior women have had intermittent labour market attachment, the majority of today's 40 and 50 year-old women - tomorrow's female retirees - will have spent the bulk of their adult years in the labour force. From a policy point of view, these changes mean that the present is an inadequate guide to what the future will hold.