Designing feminist pensions policies: a feminist institutional analysis of the interrelationships between structure, agency and gendered pension outcomes in the UK

Women’s private pension wealth is projected by the Department of Work and Pensions to be 35% lower than that of men’s at retirement. In this thesis I address this pressing and persistent problem through policy design. Pension policies have historically made androcentric assumptions which have failed to acknowledge the impact of gendered imbalances in the wider social environment. To improve projected equality of outcomes, I apply a novel policy approach that takes account of the dynamic interrelationships between the institutional structural environment and women’s individual agency. Focussing on UK based Millennial aged women, I synthesise primary and secondary data to conduct a feminist institutional analysis of how changes such as wage stagnation, student loans and property ownership affect women’s financial futures. In the second stage, I investigate how women exercise agency within the structural environment, identifying enabling and constraining factors and arising policy implications. Insights from these two stages are used to model future policy scenarios in the final stage. I assess the potential impacts of different policy interventions by drawing on the lived experiences of women included in this study. This includes existing policies which claim to improve women’s financial positions and three further policies I develop myself. I conclude that auto-enrolment has increased Millennial women’s reliance on occupational pensions and in so doing has increased the effects of discriminatory employment practices. Moreover, housing costs, unpaid work and parental wealth, intersect to create a gendered, unequal pensions environment. Drawing on the collective findings of this study I construct gender sensitive pensions policy guidelines for future policymakers to use to improve women’s long-term financial outcomes.