By: AARP
More than one in four older women rely on Social Security for nearly all their family income. In 2010 alone, Social Security kept roughly 38 percent of women age 65 and older out of poverty.
Social Security is especially important to women today because:
Women typically earn less on average than men do, are more likely than men to work part time, and are more likely to have gaps in their employment which results in lower lifetime earnings for women.
Since women tend to live longer than men do, they are more likely to outlive their savings.
Women are less likely than men to have additional sources of retirement income, such as pension or savings.
More than one-third of widowed women age 65 and over rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their family income.
Among divorced women that age, just under one-third depend on Social Security for almost all of their family income
For more on ways Social Security can be adapted to better serve women, visit AARP.org and feel free to share with your readers with a link!
