Social worker preparedness for retirement: gender and ethnic considerations

A systematic, comprehensive analysis of preretirement attitudes and planning among social workers is clearly needed. This article describes research to examine the extent to which social workers adequately prepare for retirement. The analysis established controls for gender and ethnicity, specifically for African American, Puerto Rican, and white social workers, because earlier research indicates that these variables significantly affect how much and how well professionals prepare for retirement. Based on the findings, recommendations and a call for action are provided that will help social workers prepare better before they retire and struggle less during retirement. The need for social workers to conceptualize retirement as a process that has several stages is stressed.