ISSN 2736-1578
African Journal of Gender and Women Studies | Vol. 11, No. 11, November 2026 | pp. 267–280
DOI: 10.46882/2026/AJGWS/001364
Article Type: Research Article
Title: Gender, Ageing, and Social Protection: Pension Inequities Among Elderly Women in Africa
Names of Author: Sibongile Dube¹, Mei-Hua Chen², & Katarzyna Kowalczyk³
Author's Affiliation: ¹Department of Social Development, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa; ²Department of Social Welfare, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan; ³Institute of Social Policy, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Abstract:
Because women spend their working lives disproportionately concentrated in unpaid family care, subsistence agriculture, and informal trading, they accumulate significantly lower contributory pension savings than men over the life course. Consequently, elderly women face heightened risks of chronic old-age poverty, housing insecurity, and dependence on overstretched extended family networks—even as grandmothers frequently assume primary caregiving responsibility for orphaned or migrant parents’ children. This paper examines the gendered adequacy of contributory and non-contributory social pension schemes in South Africa, Ghana, and Taiwan. Anchored in feminist gerontology and comparative welfare state theory, the research analyzes pension coverage data alongside life-history interviews with 55 older women. We demonstrate that universal, inflation-indexed non-contributory social pensions and formal care credits are essential for securing women’s dignity and economic autonomy in later life.
Keywords: Feminist gerontology, social protection, pension inequities, elderly women, old-age poverty, care credits, South Africa, Ghana
Manuscript Timeline: Received: October 08, 2026; Revised: November 06, 2026; Accepted: November 10, 2026; Published: November 16, 2026.
Citation: Dube, S., Chen, M.-H., & Kowalczyk, K. (2026). Gender, Ageing, and Social Protection: Pension Inequities Among Elderly Women in Africa. African Journal of Gender and Women Studies, 11(11), 267–280. DOI: 10.46882/2026/AJGWS/001364