They have hectic schedules and enormous family responsibilities, yet they work for free, without any salary recognition. Housewives play the roles of secretary, nanny, housekeeper, and cook all at once. The problem is, this work isn't declared. Logically, they aren't supposed to receive a pension.<\/p>\n
Retirement<\/a> is a dream for all working people, but it also raises some concerns. Many women worry they won't "have enough." At retirement age, women and men are not equal. Those who had to interrupt their careers due to one or more births must make up the missed quarters, and their hard-earned pension is less generous than men's.<\/p>\n According to the figures<\/a> , women receive pensions that are 28% lower than men's on average. The reasons? Career choices in less prestigious service sector jobs, persistent wage inequalities, and varying lengths of maternity leave. Stay-at-home mothers, meanwhile, suffer a double penalty and find themselves in a blind spot, almost "outside the system."<\/p>\n Despite years of shouldering household chores, preparing lunches for the whole family, and nurturing children from their first steps to their final goodbye, they are sorely lacking in recognition. While the saying goes that "all work deserves pay,"<\/em> it would seem that folding laundry, vacuuming, or changing diapers are considered voluntary work or simply "goodwill." Yet, in France, stay-at-home mothers are not denied a pension. It simply doesn't take the same form as that of employed individuals.<\/p>\n The website Ma retraite en clair (My Retirement<\/a> Made Clear) has compiled a list of the rights of these women, who are often overlooked in the process. With a simple registration with France Travail (the French employment agency), it is possible to validate up to six quarters of pension contributions. However, this has no bearing on the final retirement pension. Where stay-at-home mothers can benefit is by applying for the old-age insurance for stay-at-home parents (AVPF).<\/p>\n This allows the CAF (Family Allowance Fund) to cover their retirement contributions. However, this affiliation is subject to certain conditions, such as receiving the family supplement \u2013 granted in particular to families with at least three children \u2013 or caring for a child or adult with a disability who has a permanent disability rate of at least 80%.<\/p>\n Without pension contributions, there is normally no standard pension. However, a homemaker can receive the ASPA (minimum old-age pension) from age 65, subject to income requirements. This represents approximately \u20ac1,043 gross per month for a single person in 2026 and \u20ac1,620 gross per month for a couple.<\/p>\n While in the past, the status of housewife was imposed rather than chosen with full awareness, today it's a very personal decision. Alongside the " tradwives<\/a> ," those controversial online housewives who perpetuate a patriarchal ideal, there are mothers who want to see their children grow up and dedicate themselves fully to their upbringing. Often called "domestic goddesses," they don't just watch "Desperate Housewives" while ironing shirts. They're everywhere. Budget manager, educator, tutor, laundry worker\u2026 a single page on their resume wouldn't be enough to list all their skills.<\/p>\n According to INSEE (the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies), this domestic work, often dismissed as utterly mundane, is practically equivalent to a 34-hour workweek. In a utopian world that will unfortunately never exist, stay-at-home mothers would therefore earn between \u20ac50,000 and \u20ac60,000 per year. That's as much as an executive working in finance. To arrive at this estimate, experts added together the average salary for each position that stay-at-home mothers hold.<\/p>\n The debate is not simply about how much these women should receive once they reach retirement age. It questions our collective way of valuing care, education, and domestic organization\u2014essential roles that are still too often relegated to the shadow of so-called "productive" careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They have hectic schedules and enormous family responsibilities, yet they work for free, without any salary recognition. Housewives...","protected":false},"author":8340,"featured_media":441514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_msn":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-441510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-societe"],"image":{"medium":["https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/femme-au-foyer-retraite-200x113.jpg",200,113,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/femme-au-foyer-retraite-500x281.jpg",500,281,true]},"custom":{"td_video":"","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/femme-au-foyer-retraite.jpg","author":{"name":"\u00c9milie Laurent","avatar":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-2f5d8c00d5d5c27f8ce4d9b3f9015467-96x96.png"},"categories":[{"term_id":5678,"name":"Society","slug":"societe","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5846,"taxonomy":"category","description":" The Society section of The Body Optimist unpacks the debates that shape women\u2019s lives: equality, discrimination, beauty standards, social ties and the place of bodies in public space. Its analysis, first-person stories and practical advice are for anyone who wants to understand the pressures of everyday life and push back, with an inclusive, body-positive and judgment-free perspective.<\/p>\n Beauty standards are a social issue because they are neither natural nor universal: they shift from one country to another and from one era to the next, as our article on how beauty standards differ around the world<\/a> shows. Yet these ideals of thinness, youth and flawless skin have very real effects: comments starting in childhood, pressure to watch your weight, unequal treatment at work and in health care, online harassment. Recognizing that a norm is constructed helps you take a step back, spot the messages designed to make you feel guilty and choose what you want to keep. That is the common thread of this section: connecting individual experiences to the collective mechanisms that produce them.<\/p>\n If you experience discrimination or online harassment, the first step is to keep evidence, then to turn to the right people, who will depend on the country you live in:<\/p>\n Born from a plus-size fashion site, our magazine looks at social issues through the lens of the body and representation. We give a voice to the people most affected, we explain the words before debating them (sexism, fatphobia, trans identity, consent) and we favor practical ways forward over outrage alone. Our articles start from everyday experiences to shed light on broader patterns, without moralizing or pitting women against each other.<\/p>\n Discrimination is unequal treatment based on a characteristic protected by law, in a specific area such as employment, housing or access to goods and services. Protected grounds vary from country to country, but they often include sex, race or ethnic origin, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. Some places also protect physical appearance or weight.<\/p>\n Intersectionality describes how several forms of discrimination can overlap in the same person and reinforce one another. The American legal scholar Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw coined the term to describe the experiences of Black women. A woman who is both fat and lesbian, for example, may face sexism, fatphobia and homophobia, which compound one another rather than simply adding up.<\/p>\n Diet culture is the set of beliefs that equates thinness with health, success and personal worth. It shows up in foods labeled \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad,\u201d compliments on weight loss and the shaming of fat bodies. Our magazine prefers a weight-inclusive approach to health, at every size.<\/p>\n Want to go further? Our Culture<\/a> section explores how bodies and identities are portrayed in movies, TV shows and books, and our Psychology<\/a> section supports you with self-image, confidence and emotions.<\/p>","parent":0,"count":1542,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5678,"category_count":1542,"category_description":" The Society section of The Body Optimist unpacks the debates that shape women\u2019s lives: equality, discrimination, beauty standards, social ties and the place of bodies in public space. Its analysis, first-person stories and practical advice are for anyone who wants to understand the pressures of everyday life and push back, with an inclusive, body-positive and judgment-free perspective.<\/p>\n Beauty standards are a social issue because they are neither natural nor universal: they shift from one country to another and from one era to the next, as our article on how beauty standards differ around the world<\/a> shows. Yet these ideals of thinness, youth and flawless skin have very real effects: comments starting in childhood, pressure to watch your weight, unequal treatment at work and in health care, online harassment. Recognizing that a norm is constructed helps you take a step back, spot the messages designed to make you feel guilty and choose what you want to keep. That is the common thread of this section: connecting individual experiences to the collective mechanisms that produce them.<\/p>\n If you experience discrimination or online harassment, the first step is to keep evidence, then to turn to the right people, who will depend on the country you live in:<\/p>\n Born from a plus-size fashion site, our magazine looks at social issues through the lens of the body and representation. We give a voice to the people most affected, we explain the words before debating them (sexism, fatphobia, trans identity, consent) and we favor practical ways forward over outrage alone. Our articles start from everyday experiences to shed light on broader patterns, without moralizing or pitting women against each other.<\/p>\n Discrimination is unequal treatment based on a characteristic protected by law, in a specific area such as employment, housing or access to goods and services. Protected grounds vary from country to country, but they often include sex, race or ethnic origin, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. Some places also protect physical appearance or weight.<\/p>\n Intersectionality describes how several forms of discrimination can overlap in the same person and reinforce one another. The American legal scholar Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw coined the term to describe the experiences of Black women. A woman who is both fat and lesbian, for example, may face sexism, fatphobia and homophobia, which compound one another rather than simply adding up.<\/p>\n Diet culture is the set of beliefs that equates thinness with health, success and personal worth. It shows up in foods labeled \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad,\u201d compliments on weight loss and the shaming of fat bodies. Our magazine prefers a weight-inclusive approach to health, at every size.<\/p>\n Want to go further? Our Culture<\/a> section explores how bodies and identities are portrayed in movies, TV shows and books, and our Psychology<\/a> section supports you with self-image, confidence and emotions.<\/p>","cat_name":"Society","category_nicename":"societe","category_parent":0}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441948,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441510\/revisions\/441948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} The amount that housewives can expect in retirement<\/h2>\n
What if housewives received a salary?<\/h2>\n
What you\u2019ll find in the Society section<\/h2>\n
\n
Why are beauty standards a social issue?<\/h2>\n
What can you do about discrimination or online harassment?<\/h2>\n
\n
Our approach: connecting the personal and the collective<\/h2>\n
Articles to start with<\/h2>\n
\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
What counts as discrimination?<\/h3>\n
What is intersectionality?<\/h3>\n
What is diet culture?<\/h3>\n
What you\u2019ll find in the Society section<\/h2>\n
\n
Why are beauty standards a social issue?<\/h2>\n
What can you do about discrimination or online harassment?<\/h2>\n
\n
Our approach: connecting the personal and the collective<\/h2>\n
Articles to start with<\/h2>\n
\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
What counts as discrimination?<\/h3>\n
What is intersectionality?<\/h3>\n
What is diet culture?<\/h3>\n