A successful mid-term conference of COST Action Network IS1409 Gender, Health and Extended Working Life was held in the Law Faculty, University of  Zagreb, Croatia on March 24th involving three international keynote speakers: Madonna Harrington-Meyer, Debora Price and Martin Hyde and highlighting the work of Action members. 

The network is chaired by Dr Aine Ni Leime and administered by Christine de Largy of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology. It involves researchers from several disciplines from 33 countries and policy bodies including the International Labour Organisation and Eurofound. The aim is to encourage international research collaboration to analyse the gender and health implications of policies designed to extend working lives. Such policies are typically one-size-fits-all and include raising state pension age and linking pensions increasingly to labour market participation. They are being introduced in many countries to contain pension costs, but the differentiated impacts for men and women, for workers in physically demanding jobs, or those who cannot find employment need to be systematically examined. The network plans to inform national and international policy bodies of research findings across countries. The network provides opportunities for early career researchers to participate in Training Schools and Short-term Scientific Missions.

The Action website is www.genderewl.com