Early Retirement with Regard to Gender and Ethnic Marginalization: Evidence from Palestinian Women in Israel

This article examines early retirement among Palestinian women in Israel. Following quantitative evidence that these women are prone to early retirement, we conducted qualitative research to unravel the underlying socio-economic forces guiding their retirement decisions. We conducted twenty-six semi-structured interviews with early retirees, recruited using the snowball method, revealing a range of push and pull factors influencing early retirement. Pull factors include expectations for care-work throughout women’s lifecycles while push factors include burnout, the glass ceiling and ageism. Drawing on intersectionality theory and the concept of the gendered kinscript, the analysis explores the interplay between women’s agency in early retirement decisions and their precarious position within Israel’s ethnically segregated and discriminatory labor market. Whether they make an informed choice to retire, are forced out, feel pressured to take on urgent domestic responsibilities or succumb to burnout, their decisions are shaped by both perceived work opportunities and societal expectations embedded in the gendered kinscript. We argue that this script allows women to ascribe positive meaning to their choices despite the precarity that early retirement entails.