Hopfried Stutz: on gender, money and happiness

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Pillar 2 has always been interspersed with weird terms like co-ordination deduction, guaranteed benefits, or extra-compulsory. However, only recently I was struck by one term related to occupational pensions: the gender pension gap.

Until the big women’s strike four years ago, when middle-class women took to the streets, hardly anyone could understand the meaning of this neologism. The fact that women, on average, received smaller pensions from the pension fund was simply not a problem. Many women had no pension fund at all, or were married and formed an economic unit with their husbands.

Times change. The difference in pensions between men and women has become a problem. On average, older women receive an annual pension of 20,000 francs less than men. This gender gap in pensions has hardly narrowed in recent years, but is likely to narrow in the long term.

This is the result of the Swiss Life study, which was presented on Thursday. It’s not that surprising, and it’s not particularly exciting. Politically explosive is the fact that women do not complain about this gap at all, except perhaps in politicians. “Retired women are just as likely to be satisfied with their personal financial situation as retired women, regardless of marital status,” according to the Swiss Life study. Retired women also felt that they were financially self-sufficient to the same extent as retired women.

This is true? Research is called into question when you are not satisfied with the results. Sociologist Katya Rost and economist Margit Osterlo can tell you something about this. Two professors at the University of Zurich were greatly offended because they came to the conclusion in the course of a study that careers are not a priority for many students. Many preferred the traditional family model with a man as the breadwinner. “Most female students would rather have a successful man than make their own careers,” the Sunday newspaper headlined.

What should not be cannot be, some might say to themselves. The Swiss Life study is no different. That being said, gentlemen from a life insurance company are unlikely to face the same storm of shit as professors at the University of Zurich.

Well, I confess: I don’t believe in all the studies either. Especially when the sender benefits directly from the result. Credit Suisse was so helpful when it tried to fool us with the worry barometer that young people are most concerned about providing for older people. What nonsense.

Source: Blick