Reducing Poverty among Older Women: Social Security Reform and Gender Equity

Abstract

The authors document the higher poverty rate of older women, especially women of color, compared with older men—a pattern created and maintained by the intersection of the structural factors of age, race, and marital status. They then review how the U.S. Social Security program generally benefits older women and reduces their late-life economic vulnerability. A persistent gender inequity, however, is that women are more likely to disrupt their paid employment to meet family care responsibilities, which may increase the number of zero-earnings years and reduce the amount paid into Social Security. Current proposals to privatize the Social Security system are critiqued in terms of their gender inequities. Three relatively revenue-neutral proposals that could increase Social Security's protection against poverty and differentially affect low-income women are briefly discussed.