РОДНА ДИМЕНЗИЈА СИРОМАШТВА СТАРИЈИХ У СРБИЈИ
GENDER DIMENSION OF POVERTY OF THE SERBIA’S ELDERLY POPULATION

Author(s): Gordana Matković, Katarina Stanić
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Sociology, Welfare systems, Family and social welfare
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: elderly women; at-­risk­-of­-poverty; material deprivation; single­-person household; pension gap
Summary/Abstract: The gender differences in the living standard in Serbia are not pronounced. They become evident only among the elderly aged 65+ and intensify with further aging. According to EU­SILC (2017), the greatest disparities of the at­risk­of­poverty rate (AROP) and the severe material deprivation (SMD) rate in Serbia are registered among the elderly aged 75+ (7.5 pp and 10 pp, respectively). At the same time, both indicators suggest that women in this age group are the most vulnerable group in Serbia (as their respective AROP and SMD rates are 8.4 pp and 4.3 pp higher compared to those of the general population). Since the first EU­SILC wave, the at­risk­of­poverty rate has increased the most for elderly women 75+. According to the severe material deprivation indicator, the gender differences in the 75+ age group are among the highest and elderly women aged 75+ in Serbia are among the most vulnerable compared to the EU countries. As individuals share (at least formally) the fate of the household they live in, these differences are mainly the consequence of the heterogenous living arrangements, but also of the gender gap in pensions as the most important source of income in old age. Elderly women more often than men live in single­person households (30.7% and 17.1%, respectively), which are far more vulnerable than an average household, while women’s pensions are lower than men’s (a 21.5 % gap) as a result of the negative cumulative effect caused by their less favourable position in the labour market.

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