Self-Defined Retirement Status and Engagement in Paid Work among Older Working-Age Women: Comparison between Childless Women and Mothers

Utilizing data from the 1992–1994 Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this paper examines the question of whether three groups of older working-age women—childless women, mothers with at least one child at home or temporarily away at school, and mothers with all their children living away from home—were different or similar in their likelihood of retirement and their actual work status. The results show that the childless group and the child-not-at-home group were more likely than the child-at-home group to define themselves as retired, although the three groups were equally likely to engage in paid work activities. Both early childbearing history and ongoing parental financial obligations appear to influence women's willingness to assume a retiree versus a nonretiree status. The findings may reflect an emerging trend of retirement being a status symbol rather than a marker of complete cessation from the world of work.