By: Hila Weissberg
(An article published in the Haaretz website)
Retirement kills people, men and women employees, who are at the peak of their professional lives, are forced to retire against their will. In Israeli society, retirement represents social death, according to Professor Esther Hertzog, coordinator of Women’s Parliament (Women’s meetings held yearly around Israel), yesterday at the “Retiring at my peak” conference, which took place in Tel-Aviv through the initiative of IBI Investment House, Women’s Parliament and Co Co – a social fashion initiative.
Last year, Hertzog retired from her teaching and research positions at the Levinski and the Beit Berl colleges; in the conference, she described the overwhelming emotions during that passing year, her last year as an academic employee. “Retirement followed me around in my last working year, through the looks of people around me, through insinuated, whispered, random or intentional statement, of which the message was, “You don’t belong here anymore,” as well as, “You are no longer relevant”. Hertzog expressed that she decided to fight against the retirement age law, which states that an employee can force his employees to retire when they reach the age of 67, and then she understood that the battle was indeed lost for the time being, but it was important to, at least, strengthen the financial power of women after retirement. “It was pleasantly explained to me that there was nothing to be done about it, because that was the law,” says Hertzog, “and then I realized that I was not alone. I spoke to a friend who was forced to retire from her work at the radio. I spoke to a friend who was forced to retire from her work at a government office. I spoke to an esteemed colleague from one of the universities, as well as with others, and I found out that almost all of them were experiencing the same experience of exclusion, belittling, transparency, the beating of the wings of professional and social death”.
“Out of the anger, I learned that cancelling the mandatory retirement in the USA was achieved by the “Grey Panthers”, after a long struggle. Thus, I personally comprehended the meaning of the feminist saying, ‘The personal is the political’. I decided that I wanted to be a part of the grey panthers, here in Israel, who were fighting to cancel the demeaning and discriminating mandatory retirement.”
“In order to bring about change, we, the women who were forced to retire, must establish our own power group; and now, we also have finances. The fight against the social death of those forced to retire relies on two main things; finances and organization. If we learn the wisdom of finances in detail, we can establish our independence and personal financial security, turn the modest amounts of money into a stable foundation later on in life, not as being dragged towards an end, but rather in constant growth in the fields of our expertise and in new fields. Today, I understand that as long as I was an employee, on a fixed salary, I could afford not to comprehend or care about finances. After analyzing the meanings of retirement, it has become clear to me that being retired means a necessity, as well as an opportunity to comprehend and learn to manage finances.”
Barbara Swirski, aged 73, director of the Adva Center for the study of Israeli society, spoke of the national need for a state pension fund that will manage the workers’ pensions for nominal management fees.
MK Michal Biran (Labor), who also participated in the conference, said that, in cooperation with Swirski, she was promoting a legislation for establishing a state pension fund, “whose purpose is to provide everyone with a fair and secure pension arrangement,” according to her. Swirski said that, “The state fund is very important for women with low salaries, because in today’s reality, strong workers pay low management fees on their pensions, while weak ones pay a lot. They have no bargaining power.”
Swirski also spoke of the need to double the old age pension that singles receive today, “so it would amount to a quarter of the average salary, approximately 2,200 Shekels” (The current old age pension for singles is 1,500 Shekels). I don’t expect the state to finance all of it; it will come from raising the social security payments by employees and employers, and the state will add some,” said Swirski.
Ella Alkalay, vice president of business development at I.B.I. Investment House added, “Women do not participate and are not involved enough in the economic discourse. Think of a woman who works as a teacher or a doctor her entire life, retires at the age of 65 while her pension fund is worth approximately a million Shekels. If she still has 25 years left to live, then her monthly allowance will be approximately 3,300 NIS, and that is not good. However, if she knows how to invest those million Shekels, her monthly allowance can be much higher. With 3 million Shekels spread over 25 years, you can manage.”
Another speaker at the conference was Anat Nir, chairwoman of the board of “Feminanci” – a financial college for women, and the daughter of the late Lily Nir, who founded the college based on her personal experience as a mother of four and a sole provider. “Mother always said that even during the worse crisis, you can find bits of light, and use them to grow,” said Nir. “There is no age limit on the study of finances, and you can always do more. Since crises are a part of life, and you never know when and how they may occur, you should know how to prepare in advance. The message of the college to women is crucial: Take charge of your finances.”