The Economic Status Of Older Women

There is a staggeringly large amount of divorces in the United States (US). In total, the US had a recorded total of 2,140,272 marriages in the year 2014 alone, and of those marriages, 813,862 ended up in divorce or annulment (Center for Disease Control). This means that as recently as 2014, there was a divorce rate of approximately 40%. This supports the statistics that the divorce rate for the US has stayed within 40-50% since the 1970’s (Austin Institute, 2014). While the numbers themselves are important, it is also important that the causes for the high divorce rate be explored, so that it can be known what pitfalls to avoid when participating in such an important union as marriage. There are many causes of divorce in the US such as conflicting gender roles, socioeconomic status, religious conflicts, physical abuse, emotional abuse, alcohol addictions, and many more (Amato & Previti, 2003). This paper will look at many of these reasons, but it will also focus on the differing reasons reported by men and women.

Singled and divorced women are most likely to have low paying jobs than men. This causes a financial strain on the

Kathleen M. Rehl, PhD, CFP, CeFT, shares insightful experience and expertise on working with widows through her speaking, writing, and mentoring. Carolyn C. Moor is the executive director and founder of Modern Widows Club, a nonprofit organization leading a movement to enable and empower widows to become mentors, leaders, and advocates. Linda Y. Leitz, CFP, EA, CDFA, is co-owner of It’s Not Just Money, Inc., a fee-only financial planning firm in Colorado Springs that serves middle-income clients, including those who are single due to the death of a spouse or to divorce. John E. Grable, PhD, CFP, holds an Athletic Association Endowed Professorship at the University of Georgia where he conducts research and teaches financial planning. When I look at the background of each author I can see how they teamed up together to write this article on financial planning for

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate for single parents in 2009 was 37.1%, while the rate for married couples with children was 6.8%. This means that being raised in a married family reduces a child’s probability of living in poverty by 82%. Policies that can be implemented to strengthen marriage would be ones that educate the public on the benefits of marriage to financial stability and child development. Returning to economic policies, the welfare system has penalties against marriage within it that create incentives to not get married. Since benefits are reduced as a family’s income rises, a single mother will receive more benefits than if she had an employed husband in the home. For low-income couples, this means that marriage would cause a decline in welfare benefits and an overall decline in the couple’s joint income. In order to remove these disincentives, the welfare system could be changed to increase the value of earned income tax credit for married couples with children. Work requirements can again be of assistance by making it so able-bodied parents are required to or look for work in order to receive aid. This will prevent the appeal of using welfare as an alternative to work or marriage. By implementing these ideas, marriage will increase and poverty and welfare dependence will

According to the National Council of Welfare, The majority of those who rely on social assistance in Canada tend to be women, children and people with disabilities, it is noted that government policy focus on getting them into the paid workforce without adequate supports such as childcare, housing, and money for basic expenses, these policies are considered to be unrealistic and create much misery for the Canadians that are forced to live under these policies (Women, 2007). According to Census 2000, the average annual pre-tax income of women from all sources including government transfers was $22,885 or 62% that of what men receive. In Canada, female lone parent families have by far the lowest average total incomes among families. Although women continue to be among the poorest of the poor in Canada, they make up a disproportionate share of the population with low income 2.4 million women in 2001 compared to 1.9 million men (Work, 2004).

The 21st Century has brought about improvements to the general welfare state in Canada – greater access to resources such as food and shelter. Women still struggle to find equitable living conditions in our society. In fact, women below the poverty line require significantly more attention than men. The number of homeless women is drastically increasing due to rising levels of domestic abuse. Women require greater medical attention due to drastic rates of various health issues. And finally, women find it more difficult to attain equitable pay in the workforce, and often must resort to alternate methods to make a fair wage. Women who experience domestic abuse flee the home in order to escape the mental and physical mistreatment, as well as for their safety. According to a study, domestic abuse occurs more frequently among unemployed or poor people (Novac, 4). Women must rely on other sources for food and shelter in order to survive. Ultimately domestic

There are a few different reasons for this phenomenon as illustrated by Gray and Heinsch (2009): “women feel that retirement planning is a male role, and that they will be taken care of; women find existing preretirement planning programs are generic, male or couple oriented, and do not address women’s specific needs and situations; women are traditionally ‘otherfocused’ and place their wellbeing behind nurturing others; and women may not feel they have a locus of control.” It is fascinating that these differences are illustrated, and they really make a lot of sense. The point about how women place their wellbeing behind nurturing others is really key; it is discussed so much in class about how women are often placed with the pressures of caring for their elderly parents or family. It is really interesting that this theme of caring for others seems to follow women up until and through their own retirement, when self-care is truly essential. It is really important as a social worker working with this population that women are reached out to and informed about the

I agree with you Rezina, that low-income elderly people are very much affected by socioeconomic status. Because of the rising health care cost and high co-pay or deductible many patients with limited income, hesitate to go the doctor. Many low income elderly cannot afford because of the high cost of medications. According to Lange(2012), Older patients with a history of low socioeconomic status may arrive at a clinic or hospital setting with diabetes that has been undiagnosed and untreated. Even a treatment plan are made, often patient of low socioeconomic status miss their appointments and appear unwilling to follow medical guidance. Nurses need to assess patient and help if they need to navigate the medical system or make appointments for

In 1995, Statistics Canada data shows that 30% of marriages split (McGovern). Since the 1960’s, marriage and divorce have been undergoing profound changes which have altered the meaning of marriage, the chances of its ending in divorce and the circumstances attached to marriage. These changes have made it easier for couples to obtain a divorce due to the changing laws and changing morals of society. The changes include three new grounds needed to prove marital breakdown, such as your spouse committing adultery, your spouse causing mental or physical cruelty or a separation of a year it was previously three years. Divorce also impacts the family as a whole, not only the children but also the two parties

Aging is described as a sequential, irreversible, progressive, and non-pathological process of maturation in an organism and that translates to a gradual decline in the ability to perform activities optimally. Aging is an individual process that can be a period of stress for individuals especially following their retirement (Hiller & Barrow, 2015). The current study sought to understand the process and experience of aging from the perspective of elderly individuals. In discussing matters of aging and retirement, many assume that women are always eager to retire, and adjust well, as compared to their male counterparts (Bauger & Bongaardt, 2016). Many people assume that since women are generally made as homemakers, they are willing and happy to retire while men, whose nature is to be the main source of family income, find it hard to be out of work (Moody & Sasser, 2014). Indeed, there exists very little literature that sheds some light on this area, particularly on the attitudes of each gender towards retirement and process of aging. Given the significance of retirement to this life stage, the study sought to understand the emotions and views of individuals regarding their retirement through the lenses of (1) Physical health and wellbeing, (2) Friends, Family, and Community, (3) Work and leisure, (4) Finances and lifestyles, and (5) Living

Studies have shown economic disparities between married women, unmarried women, and those who are divorced or separated later in life. Each of these women will experience a different standard of living and financial well-being based on the circumstances of their life course (Davies & Denton, 2002). In 2008 women living alone had the highest rate of low income with an after-tax poverty rate of 17%, while men had a 12% after-tax poverty rate (Milan & Vezina, 2011, as cited in Novak, Campbell, & Northcott, 2014, p. 193). Studies show that separated and divorced women are the poorest of all older unattached women in Canada and the group that should be the focus of public concern. In this paper I will discuss the key factors contributing to the poverty of older women in Canada, which are marital status, gender inequalities in the family, inequalities in the labour market, low rates of alimony support, and problems with the retirement income system.

There are three main causes of divorce: changing in woman’s roles, stress in modern living, and lack of communication. The first significant cause of recent rise in the rates of divorce is a woman’s role being completely changed. In the past, men had to earn all the money to afford the expenses of the family, whereas woman only did housework. That led to the woman having no money

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2011 there were 2,118,000 marriages in the United States and almost half as many divorces (2013). The CDC also reports that only half of all first marriages will reach their twentieth anniversary. Divorce is a topic everyone is familiar with and it has almost become a normal part of life. While it is assumed that more divorces occur now than in the previous generation, the CDC actually reports that divorce rates have dropped over the past twenty to thirty years, though this could be due to the increase in individuals who live together without ever getting married or those who simply separate and cannot afford to become legally divorced. However, it has become a more

For the mother, babies can make them feel and appear younger. In the early to mid-twenties is when a woman will have the most energy but are much less likely than a woman over 35 to be financially stable, be established in their work life and have the resources to look after and care for a baby. Older women will also have more life experience and maturity to draw on in rearing a child and looking after a baby. Younger mothers are known to sometimes feel resentful at having to postpone their jobs to look after a baby but older mothers are usually wanting and ready for a baby so unlikely to feel that same resentment. Also younger women tend to worry a lot more about their body image at that age as well as focussing on jobs or marriage and adding a baby into the mix can just be too much. An older woman is likely to be more stable in a relationship and therefore more likely to deal well with the changes that parenthood brings. Older women will have had many more years to think over what a baby will mean and are more likely than a younger woman to be emotionally ready to have a child. The older one is, the more mature and patient one will be with a child, in theory. Younger mothers, very young that is, find it hard in today’s society as it is not generally geared towards helping mothers in or barely out of school. John Mirowsky, a sociologist at the University of Texas, wrote that for ages 20 and younger “pregnancy is more likely to happen out of wedlock, more likely to interfere

It is believed that men are the least affected by divorce. However this doesn’t mean that they do not suffer at all. Indeed, men suffer financially from divorce; they are obliged to support their children as well as their ex-wives. And because before divorce the responsibility was shared by both husband and wife, divorced men cannot always afford to pay alimony, thus they may be