Old Women in Poverty

Old Women in Poverty.

For the last several decades well being of older Americans has increased, and poverty rates have declined noticeably. The poverty rate among the population aged 65 and older was nearly 30 percent in 1966, bur it decreased to around 10 percent in 2000. This improvement has been connected with general economic growth and with changes in retirement policies (Bernadett, and Dalaker). However, improvements among the elderly have not been equally shared by man and women. Elderly women are more likely to be poor than elderly man, and as time goes the risk of poverty only increases. According to data from the March Current Population in 2007, the poverty rate among women aged 65 and older in 2006 was 17 percent for the widowed, 22 percent for the divorced, 23 percent for the never married, whereas the rate was only 5 percent for the married. Greater risk of poverty in old age for women then for men makes it important to understand how various life circumstances such as material status, education, employment, and health affect women’s economic well-being as they enter the retirement period.

Material status plays an important role for older women’s economic well-being, as indicated by higher rate of poverty among widows then the married. Because of the longer life expectancy for women then for men, women are more likely to experience the loss of their spouses and live alone in old age. Nearly 45 percent of all women 65 and older between 1998 and 2000 were unmarried and living alone, compared with only 16 percent of men 65 and older. (Sunhwa, and Shaw). While poverty rates among the elderly are relatively low for married couples, they are much higher for unmarried women, who were divorced, widowed, or never married. Deeper studies on women poverty show that material status plays a key role for women’s economic well-being in older age, since their financial security is often closely related to their husband’s employment. As a result women who have lost their husbands or have never had them become financially vulnerable, and for many of them it means reduced income from Social Security or husband’s pension, or even the complete loss of husband’s pension. (Zick, and Smith). Other studies show that widowed households that had less income and less wealth then married households as well as the widows who fell into poverty after the death of the husband, were especially likely to have had limited recourses before widowhood compared with widows who remained out of poverty. (Hurd, and Wise). Hurd and Wise, for instance, show that even before the widowhood, the families of poor widows had less wealth, lower savings, lower earnings of husbands, and poor health of husbands, compared with the families of both married and non-poor widows. These studied emphasize the disadvantaged economic circumstances of widowhood rather than widowhood itself as a principal reason of a higher risk of poverty among widows. Economic circumstances at earlier life seem to be important not just for widows but for women in general. Choudhurl and Leonesio find that women who were poor in early retirement ages were likely to have experienced financial difficulties during their adult lives. They also show a high correlation of economic status between old age and earlier life among married couples and women in general. (Choudhury, Sharmila and Michael V. Leonesio).

Women’s employment has important consequences for their income security in old age, as it directly affects key sources of retirement income, such as pension and Social Security, as well as other sources of income. The significance of earlier economic status for women’s income security after retirement indicates that women’s own labor market participation and earnings can be decisive. Researches show that women who keep working in old ages are more likely not to be poor, especially widows, as well as divorced and never married; often they became poor when stopped working, because earnings played a very important role in providing retired women with income. (Willson, Andrea E). Talking about employment we need to distinguish and pay special attention to white and African-American retirees. According to Andrea Willson, the higher rate of poverty for elderly African-American women then for white women is attributed to traditionally lower earnings of African-American women, and the fact that they are likely to hold the kinds of jobs that don’t offer pension coverage which leads to lower levels of pension income in retirement. Combination of these conditions makes African-American women highly vulnerable to poverty in old age despite their work experience over the life course. This information makes to think about another side of the problem and reveals new facts. Longer work histories, unless they are accompanied by pension benefits or high enough earnings,