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Author: Mack, Karin Ann
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Mack, Karin Ann
Retirement Process of Women
M.A. Thesis, University of Maryland, 1991
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Age and Ageing; Educational Attainment; Health Factors; Marital Status; Racial Differences; Retirement/Retirement Planning; Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Over the past several decades there has been a gradual groundswell of concern for quality of life at the older ages. These concerns grow as a function of the number of baby boomers entering middle life and as a larger proportion of the population becomes older. This research will focus on one aspect of older life-- retirement. It will further narrow its focus by concentrating on only the lives of women, a neglected area of retirement research. This research views retirement as a process with identifiable predictors of the age of retirement. Further it suggests that the predictors of retirement age for women may differ greatly from those factors relevant to men. The explanatory variables tested in this research include: socioeconomic status, education, health, occupation, race, and family variables. The significance of this research lies fundamentally with the neglect of women in previous retirement research. The goal of this research is to explore the retirement process for women and identify the predictors of age of retirement for women. Results indicate that retirement is significantly affected by marital status for white women at all ages. For black women, a variety of factors affect retirement between the ages of 55 and 59, the effects of which disappear after age 60. This project uses data from the NLS of Mature Women, a cohort of American women who were just beginning to retire in the late 1980s. Thus this research attempts an exploratory look at these data to set up a framework for future analysis.
Bibliography Citation
Mack, Karin Ann. Retirement Process of Women. M.A. Thesis, University of Maryland, 1991.
2. Mack, Karin Ann
Women and Retirement: Life Course and Temporally Proximate Determinants of Early Retirement of White and African American Women in the NLS Mature Women Cohort
Ph.D. Dissertation, Mississippi State University, 1995
Cohort(s): Mature Women
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Age and Ageing; Divorce; Event History; Family Income; Family Influences; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Life Course; Marital Stability; Marital Status; Modeling; Modeling, Hazard/Event History/Survival/Duration; Racial Differences; Retirement/Retirement Planning; Women

One flaw with much of previous work on retirement has been the static nature of conceptual and methodological frameworks. Here, a more dynamic approach is taken through an integration of life course theory and event history analysis. A feminist life course model is used to examine the retirement process and commitment to work and family roles over the life course. Further, racial differences in life course processes force a consideration of the lives of African American and white women independently. Previous research has frequently been fooled by what Finley (1995) describes as a 'social parallax' (a social parallax exists when there is a misperception of sameness). Results of this research show, that although white and African American women retire at the same rate, their paths to retirement are very different and thus models which are not separated by race ignore the complexity of this role. Data are from the NLS Labor Market Experience Mature Women Cohort. Discrete- time logistic regression hazard rate models show that life course factors, in work, individual, and family domains, do have significant effects on the timing of retirement. Thus experiences over the life course are crucial to a complete understanding of transitions in later life. Retirement timing for both white and African American women is significantly affected by promotions to more challenging work, durations in jobs, income, percentage of weeks worked, location in a pension-favorable industry, assets, and pension and Social Security receipt. In addition, retirement timing of white women is significantly affected by whether the respondent values extrinsic factors of work, recent promotions, marriage durations, spouse's retirement status, divorce, health, age differences between spouses, family income, and marital status. The retirement timing of African American women is affected by Duncan Index scores, whether the respondent dislikes her job, and education. The author concludes that: 1.) work commitment factors are the major determinant of retirement timing for both groups of women although white women also strongly influenced by family-related events; and 2.) life course measures provide insights into the retirement process which are not possible with temporal measures.
Bibliography Citation
Mack, Karin Ann. Women and Retirement: Life Course and Temporally Proximate Determinants of Early Retirement of White and African American Women in the NLS Mature Women Cohort. Ph.D. Dissertation, Mississippi State University, 1995.