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Social Security In America

Decent Essays

Close your eyes and picture a country with limited amounts of food, people staving, people in financial crisis with no means to support their family or self. Now open your eyes, were the people you envisioned older men, women, and children? If you said yes, you’ve visualized The Great Depression. The great depression was a mass crisis that hit Americans in the 1930’s, leaving many men, women, and children in poverty. So, when Americans had exhausted much of the welfare program funds, a bigger, was necessary. That change was called Social Security.
The United States Social Security Act was signed in place, August 14, 1935 by (FDR) Democratic, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The goal of the Social Security Act was to provide insurance for …show more content…

(FDR) stated The Social Security Act was for (workers in business and in industry.”) And the job categories that were not covered by that of (business and industry) were workers in agricultural labor, domestic service, teachers, nurses, just to name a few. Basically the employment definitions under (FDR) reflected the typical white male categories and configurations for the 1950’s era. So, consequently most women and minorities were excluded from the benefits of unemployment insurance and old age pensions that Social Security presented and they still continued to suffer and endure …show more content…

Discrimination in the 1950’s brought about persistent harassment, your race, age, or ethnic group beleaguered minorities. The study conducted by Administration of Aging (2003) the effects of gender, race and ethnicity found that older women (12.4%) had a higher poverty rate than men (7.7%) 2002. And that the highest poverty rate (47.1%) plagued Hispanic women who lived alone. The manifestation of great poverty amongst our women and minorities still excites to this day. (Novak)
According to Novak “Issues in Aging,” The negative backlash that both minorities and women share is minimal to the hardship we see with widows. The woman who has lost her spouse by death and has not remarried suffers the most in her aging life, the risk of her being poverty stricken is at an all-time high. The cause of this, as mentioned before most women didn’t work so no retirement has been stored up, so when her husband is ill the benefits apply aide till he dies, once the husband’s funds are depleted widows have little to nothing to live off of. She must then look to her children to provide if the children are unable to provide widows may suffer poverty till

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