This study examines the retirement income of women in Europe, focusing on the
effect of motherhood. Due to their more interrupted working careers compared
to non-mothers and fathers, mothers are likely to accumulate fewer pension entitlements,
and consequently, to receive lower incomes in later life. However, pension
systems in Europe vary widely in the degree to which they compensate for carerelated
career interruptions by means of redistributive elements or pension care
entitlements. Therefore, care interruptions may matter for the retirement income
of women in some countries, but may be rather irrelevant in others. On the basis
of life history data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe
(SHARELIFE) for women aged between 60 and 75 years in 13 European countries,
the interplay of individual lifecourse characteristics with institutional and structural
factors is examined. The results show that the lower retirement income of mothers is
mainly a result of fewer years in employment and lower-status jobs throughout the
lifecourse. The analysis of institutional factors reveals that pension care entitlements
are not able to provide a compensation for care-related cutbacks in working life. A
generally redistributive design of the pension system including basic or targeted
pension schemes, in contrast, appears as an effective measure to balance differences
in employment participation over the lifecourse.