An investigation of defamilization/familization measures to assist women to save pension income and strengthen the adult worker model - The case of Hong Kong

This paper examines the use of defamilisation and familisation measures to develop an analytical framework for informing the search for ways to improve women’s opportunities to accumulate pensions. This framework is associated with the use of the adult worker model. Three main analytical tasks are presented. Firstly, we discuss different interpretations of what defamilisation entails. Based on these different views, two types of defamilisation measures utilized by the government are identified – the care-focused and the economic defamilisation. Secondly, with reference to different definitions of the adult worker model, we develop a framework for identifying ways to make the provision of the government’s defamilisation measures and its alternatives (care-focused and economic familisation measures) more effective in assisting women to accumulate pension income. Thirdly, using the case of Hong Kong, we demonstrate the application of this analytical framework.