Press reviews

(Bayerischer Rundfunk, 17.05.2015) Old-age poverty is female: women earn less, often work part-time, raise children - and often end up with a pension that is barely enough to survive on. The br documentary "Women in the pension trap" meets women from three generations: Politicians, pensioners, a divorced woman from the baby boomer generation and a young mother. Included as interview partners: pme Managing Director Alexa Ahmad and pme founder and State Councillor Gisela Erler.

The average pension for a woman is just 645 euros. That is 60 percent less than that of a man. Almost half of West German women born between 1966 and 1970 will only receive around 700 euros a month. That is barely enough to pay the rent and buy food each month.

The documentary "Women in the Pension Trap" asks federal family ministers from three decades - Rita Süssmuth, Renate Schmidt and Manuela Schwesig - why, after almost half a century of debate, one problem is still so pressing. Have politicians really spent decades introducing laws that drive women into the poverty trap with their eyes wide open? DokThema" also meets women from three generations: Retired women who have raised several children and only get by with donations and offers such as free food from food banks. A woman from the baby boomer generation, divorced, who has always worked part-time for the sake of her children and is now worried about her old age, shaken by the new alimony law, which hardly provides for any compensation payments even for long-term marriages. And a young mother who is only just beginning to realize how high the price she has to pay for her commitment at home can be.

Together with those affected and experts from science and politics, "DokThema" explores the causes, the forces preventing change and how women can escape the fatal pension trap.

Broadcast date:
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Wednesday, 17.05.2017
22:00 to 22:45

About the documentary "Women in the pension trap".