WOMENS RETIREMENT - THE INFLUENCE OF WORK HISTORY

Two groups of married, working women, ages 55 to 62, (N = 149) were co mpared on preretirement attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors, career sa tisfaction, opinions about work, competitiveness, mastery, and family orientation. Group 1 (career women) had a mean of 30 years of employme nt by age 55 and Group 2 (reentry women) had a mean 11 years by age 55 . Career women anticipated retiring at an earlier age and scored highe r on mastery and competitiveness than reentry women and they also tend ed to value career over marriage, but overall, work history appeared t o have little effect on career satisfaction, attitudes toward retireme nt or the manner in which these women made their retirement decision.