I'd guess from Hasbeen's comments and attitudes that he worked in the public service in the seventies and eighties when women were increasingly showing up the men and threatening their entrenched attitude of entitlement. I worked in several departments around that time. One had trouble keeping its women employees because they were snapped up by other departments as soon as they applied for promotions. Why? Because sexist dinosaurs like Hasbeen made working life and advancement so difficult for them that it was universally recognised that they were competent well beyond the level the misogynists had allowed them to rise to. In another Department a small cabal of men appropriated the room allocated for social activities for all staff so they could play cards every lunchtime. And yes, there were few disabled people who were woefully underemployed because people like Hasbeen resented them being 'foisted' on them and made no effort to provide them with the modified equipment they required to work effectively and no funds were made available to modify areas such as tea rooms so someone in a wheelchair could make their own cup of coffee. Its sad that Hasbeen is filled with all the hate we see in each contribution to OLO. Imagine waking up with that every morning.

Some comments here are making negative and unfair assumptions about the worth and motives of mature age women; also assumptions about their means of support as being largely reliant on full-time working men.

Even if this were so it is not an easy path or choice for a woman to depend on a man's income. Even where a woman is in a marriage relationship there is much to be said for full-time work as a way to achieve a measure of independence from an often dominant and controlling male.

The Productivity Commission paper reveals that women are not just one group.

It is telling that almost one quarter of mature age women working part time want to increase their hours, perhaps out of financial need.

Those that want to work less hours may already be resigned to living on the age pension due to inadequate super and have little to gain from hanging in full-time.

There are probably many reasons for the hours mature age women seek to work.

For all women, many of whom have made large sacrifices raising children and caring for ageing parents and husbands, the key path to the independence and freedom that financial independence and security brings is workforce participation.

That all mature age women do not choose full-time work is not a sign of dependence and laziness as Hasbeen says. Their choices, as some have noted here, are influenced by their circumstances and responsibilities in life.

Some women may be working less to care for their sick and dying husbands or because they themselves are sick or caring for grandchildren due to inadequate provision for childcare.

To hold their longevity against women (as Hasbeen does)is mean spirited and ignorant. The gender gap in longevity is narrowing as women pick up the lifestyles, stresses and risks of men and as some former "he-men" start heeding health messages.

There is perhaps also an increasing health burden on women in the sandwich generation, caught caring for children, husbands, ageing parents and grand children and with no-one to care for them at the end of the day.

I have worked in many industries and have found, from experience, that some of the hardest working and efficient employees have been mature aged women. I am rather shocked at Hasbeen's extremely narrow views on this issue ... it sounds like he has a bad history with women in general and/or the women he works with, in particular. In many instances, women do not have a man around and must juggle a full-time job whilst raising children and running a home. Fortunately, the large majority of women tend to multi-task extremely well. It is stupid to make such sweeping statements about a lifestyle you do not know anything about ... unless you are in the same situation as these women, do not make judgements and generalisations.

It is not necessary to fudge numbers and employ anecdotes and creative factoids to blame this on gender because mature workers are generally not wanted by employers. Why and what to about it is the question.

It is only the bureaucrats, self-proclaimed gender experts and other entrepreneurs who get a living out of diverting government money into their own careers and pockets who want to convert it into an issue of gender.