Imaginary, subjectivity and women’s retirement

Abstract

Women’s retirement is a time of reorganization of life, which goes through understanding of its symbolic and imaginary dimension. In this article, it is assumed that the transition from work to retirement changes the imaginary, modifying the subjectivity of these workers, giving rise to multiple meanings about breaking the link with working life. This research was conducted primary aiming to investigate how the phenomenon of retirement is interpreted by the feminine imagery. For this purpose, a qualitative exploratory research was developed, in which eleven standard interviews were openly conducted with women who have retired in the last ten years, in different occupational areas. For some respondents, retirement meant a return to a stage of dependency and inactivity, for others, meant the liberation from what was considered a burden or nuisance, seen as an opportunity to have new experiences that were not possible during professional life.