The Relationship of Work History to Self-Definition of Employment Status among Older Women

This article examines the relationship of six work history dimensions to the self-definitions of employment status among older women. Women defining themselves as retired are compared to women defining themselves as housewives despite having worked outside the home. Work continuity, type of occupation, and work satisfaction do not vary significantly between the retired and housewives. However, the two employment-status groups do differ significantly in number of years worked, age at which they stopped work, and full- versus part-time employment. These relationships generally continue to hold when marital status and age are introduced as control variables. The implications of these findings for the comparative study of women's work and for the study of women and retirement are discussed.