Marital satisfaction of highly qualified professionally achieving women post-retirement: the urban Indian scenario

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the aspect of the post-retirement marital satisfaction of highly qualified professionally achieving (HQPA) women in six cities in India. Deploying the ENRICH marital satisfaction (EMS) scale, this study compares the pre- and post-retirement scores of HQPA women. Findings show that average pre-retirement scores are higher. Analyses of variance with respect to the pre-retirement EMS scale scores showed that effects of women’s religion, ethnicity, self-rated health and financial security were significant. T-test results showed a significant difference between pre- and post-retirement EMS scale scores. Having no dependent responsibilities including no spousal caregiving, being in good health and being financially secure contributed to better marital satisfaction among HQPA women in the post-retirement phase. The findings have implications for establishments and firms to promote retirement financial planning for women, for health professionals and geriatric healthcare and geriatric counselling.

KEYWORDS:

• Marital satisfaction
• retirement
• highly qualified professionally achieving women
• India