Despite much progress, single older women constitute the fastest-growing cohort entering poverty and facing homelessness. The causes are both societal and institutional.
Special measures are necessary to support women at retirement age who have been unable to accumulate sufficient superannuation due to lower lifetime earnings and caregiving responsibilities, which have impacted their contributions. It's essential to recognize and address gender inequality and discrimination through cultural shifts and policy changes to prevent deprivation for women in their older years.
We must begin by offering women enhanced education in financial planning. This education should emphasize the importance of planning for contingencies like death and divorce, saving regularly and adequately, avoiding early withdrawals from retirement plans or savings, and understanding the value of working as long as possible.
FORBES MAGAZINE
Divorce at any age will lead to emotional and financial fallout, but it can be particularly devastating to older Americans. Not only is the process likely to be more complicated because of decades of accruing assets together, but each spouse has far less time to rebuild their finances before retirement, particularly investments. The financial implications are huge.
Research
Research tells us that women face unique financial challenges and societal disadvantage throughout their lives. These often result in an increased likelihood that they will experience poverty during their later years.
USA
NATIONAL COUNCIL ON AGING (NCOA) and WISER
Whether a woman can age well starts early - long before retirement age. Across the lifespan, women face barriers to achieving health and economic security. New research confirms it. Read results from What Women Say, a national survey from NCOA and the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement finding a majority of U.S. women ages 25+ are struggling financially today and support bipartisan policy solutions to help.
Women more likely than men to have no retirement savings
US CENSUS
Many adults approaching retirement age may not be financially prepared to retire: 49% of adults ages 55 to 66 had no personal retirement savings in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). About 50% of women ages 55 to 66 have no personal retirement savings, compared to 47% of men.
Poverty rates among older Americans rose from 8.9% in 2020 to 10.3% in 2021. For many older minority women, the poverty rates were even higher.
AUSTRALIA
A NATIONAL PLAN FOR CHANGE: INCREASING HOUSING SECURITY FOR OLDER WOMEN
Australian women aged over 50 are at greater risk of financial and housing insecurity than older men. This has been linked to a number of compounding and systemic factors. Women in this older age group today did not benefit from compulsory superannuation at the beginning of their working lives, they were more likely to have been paid at a lower rate than their male counterparts and were likely to have taken time out of the paid workforce to have children and fulfil caring roles.
EUROPEAN UNION (EU)
Gender Equality Index 2021: Health
EU Report
Family composition, age, educational attainment, migration status and (dis)ability influence income disparities between women and men. While income gaps are less visible for couples with or without children, single people and lone parents suffer striking gender inequalities. Over a lifetime, income inequalities widen, with the result that the gender gap is greatest among older people.