Only a Husband Away from Old-Age Poverty? Women’s Life Courses and Financial Security in Later Life in West Germany and the Netherlands

Population aging and increasing family diversity raise concerns about women’s financial security in later life, as a greater share do not live with a breadwinning spouse. Women’s financial security is particularly jeopardized in conservative welfare states that limit women’s options to accrue independent pension entitlements. This study examines women’s work–family life courses and financial security in later life in two conservative welfare states with distinct pension policies: West Germany with a Bismarckian pension system and the Netherlands with a more universalistic pension system. Drawing on SHARELIFE data, we apply multichannel sequence and cluster analysis, and regression methods to link work-family life course typologies to individual pensions, survivor benefits, and household equivalence income. Findings show that the work-family life courses in the two countries strongly resembled each other, characterized by a strong care orientation and weak labour force attachment of married mothers. However, women with care-oriented life courses receive substantially higher individual pensions in the Netherlands, which grant Dutch women higher financial autonomy. In contrast, women’s survivor benefits and household income were slightly higher in West Germany, affording a higher living standard but less financial autonomy, and a higher risk of poverty following a potential separation compared to the Netherlands.