This report explores the rhetoric surrounding extended working life (EWL) in threecentral documents from the European Commission. It sheds light on the underlyingproblems that raising the retirement age is assumed to solve, the rhetoric andarguments used in favour of EWL policies, as well as the assumptions about thecapacity of women and men to continue working in older age. The analysis is basedon an understanding of policies as active constructors of problems. Accordingly, theproblems that the policy addresses are not seen as objective entities; rather, they areunderstood as discursively formed by the policies.The results show both similarities and differences between the documents analysed.Behind explicit reference to the need to increase retirement age in order to securethe pension systems, there are assumptions implying that it would also strengthenpublic finances and that this could take place by ‘disciplining’ older women and meninto working longer and increasing their private savings. In arguments on economicvulnerability among older people, extended working life is also portrayed asnecessary for older people to receive adequate pensions. Further, the analysisidentifies contradictory perspectives on pension gender gaps. On the one hand, thisgap is described as a result of the difference in retirement age between women andmen, and on the other, as a consequence of events that took place during their priorworking life. Finally, the analysis identifies dichotomous divisions between workinglife as productive time and retirement as unproductive time. This rhetoric, the reportargues, serves to veil women and men’s different opportunities to combine family andwork.