abstract: 'Wealth is an increasingly important dimension of economic well-being and

  is attracting rising attention in discussions of social inequality. In

  this article, we compare - within and across countries - wealth

  outcomes, and link those to both employment-related factors and policy

  solutions that have the potential to improve wealth creation and

  retirement security for women. By constructing country-specific

  portraits of wealth outcomes and `retirement preparedness'', we reveal

  extensive cross-national variation in multiple facets of wealth. Our

  regression analysis finds a statistically significant and positive

  effect of work experience on wealth, with that effect, in general,

  increasing over time. The effect of work experience for single women is

  greater than for single men, suggesting that, among men, other, stronger

  forces are at work in creating wealth. The retirement preparedness

  outcomes indicate that single women in all three countries are in a

  precarious position at retirement, with much lower expected annual

  wealth levels than single men. The second preparedness indicator, which

  links expected annual wealth to income, demonstrates that men have the

  potential to cover larger shares of their income at retirement - and

  thus are more able, than their female counterparts, to maintain

  standards of living achieved earlier in life. Our policy discussion

  indicates that employment remains a viable option for ultimately

  bolstering women''s wealth accumulation. Many scholars, gender equality

  advocates and policymakers have argued for raising women''s employment

  rates - for a multitude of reasons - but few, if any, have made the case

  for strengthening women''s employment in order to ultimately bolster

  women''s wealth building. We hope to help reduce the gap in the

  literature on policy supports for women''s employment and re-open the

  discussion on how women can create more wealth.'
affiliation: 'Sierminska, E (Corresponding Author), Luxembourg Inst Socioecon Res
  LISER, Esch Sur Alzette, Luxembourg.

  Sierminska, E (Corresponding Author), DIW Berlin, IZA, Berlin, Germany.

  Sierminska, E (Corresponding Author), GLO, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA.

  Gornick, Janet C., CUNY, Grad Ctr, New York, NY USA.

  Sierminska, Eva, LISER, Esch Sur Alzette, Luxembourg.

  Sierminska, Eva, Univ Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA.'
author: Gornick, Janet C. and Sierminska, Eva
author-email: eva.sierminska@liser.lu
author_list:
- family: Gornick
  given: Janet C.
- family: Sierminska
  given: Eva
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1177/09589287211056174
eissn: 1461-7269
files: []
issn: 0958-9287
journal: JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN SOCIAL POLICY
keywords: 'employment; wealth; gender differences; policy; welfare states;

  retirement'
keywords-plus: INEQUALITY; WOMEN
language: English
month: DEC
number: 5, SI
number-of-cited-references: '30'
orcid-numbers: Sierminska, Eva/0000-0003-1936-814X
pages: 549-564
papis_id: 16853b83abd68a2419e3fe2a96ad4076
ref: Gornick2021wealthaccumulation
researcherid-numbers: Sierminska, Eva/AAJ-6665-2021
times-cited: '5'
title: 'Wealth accumulation and retirement preparedness in cross-national perspective:
  A gendered analysis of outcomes among single adults'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000729277700005
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '3'
volume: '31'
web-of-science-categories: Public Administration; Social Issues
year: '2021'