Why do so many women end up old, alone and poor?

Question

Through my job at a state agency I met many women who were past 60 and extremely poor. Many were seeking financial assistance from the state after a lifetime of being self sufficient. These women had been school teachers, nurses, business owners, stay-at-home wives/mothers, truck drivers, librarians, waitresses, etc. Their common denominator was being over 60 and no longer able to work full-time and support themselves. Why does this happen to so many women? What are they doing wrong? Can the situation be prevented?

Answer 1

yes it can be prevented.  Reach towards a goal in life (this includes self-love) so that you can inflate yourself and not have to depend on a man for anything!

Answer 2

well, everyone ends up old. Some are poor and old, and some are poor, old, and alone. So, I think everyone is screwed.

Answer 3

I was going to say maybe they were really HOT young girls there were always sought over by all the rich handsome men. Then when they got old and their looks wore off and their husbands were stuck with a douche, the men left them for someone else superficial, younger and prettier.

Answer 4

Women often find better company in cats.

People only get married cause women get lonely and men get tired

Answer 5

There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that women tend to live longer so there are more older women than there are men. Second, the men their age are typically married or they only want to date younger women.

Answer 6

Women tend to live longer than men, therefore they are older. Unfortunately, many of them did not earn as much as men when they were working, so their social security payments are less.

And, because they live longer, the money they earn (on investments or pensions or whatever) does not go as far as it would if they lived shorter lives. Some women took several years off to raise their families, so they did not pay into social security, 401-k or other retirement funds when they weren't working.

Sometimes the man was the money manager, and when he dies, the woman does not know how to maximize the investments or whatever money was left after the man's death. She is also vulnerable to bad investment advice by people who prey on older widows. All women should be financially knowledgable so they can be financially savvy. That is just now becoming a popular idea.

There's really no excuse for the lonliness. Shame on the grown children who don't keep in touch with these women. Try to encourage them to get involved in senior activities in their areas, get a part-time job in a public place (such as Wal-Mart) if they're able and they will be around more people.

Employers are sick and tired of irresponsible teens who text-message all day (if they do show up for work) and are usually eager to hire older people as part-timers. Encourage your clients to volunteer a few hours a week also. They could volunteer at a library, animal shelter, rock crack babies at a hospital, volunteer at a school, rec center, etc. The opportunities are endless.

It's a sad situation, as is the state of most older people in America. They're marginalized, patronized, then kept alive by often painful but heroic measures and procedures near the end of their days to minimize the guilt their children suffer..

Answer 7

first of all, generalization much!

and secondly, you're seeing the end of the old generation here. the people who stayed at home or worked "women's jobs" while their husband was the sole (or majority) bread winner! women of today aren't the women of that generation.

Answer 8

1.  Men just die (younger)

2.  Men are too proud to apply for aid (so you don't see them, they're just "homeless")

3.  Women are more likely to care for children, others, etc.  This eats into wealth.  

4.  Inflation, and destruction of the middle class, is hitting those with fixed income hard.  

5.  Some of these people may have built poorly-insulated homes in the 'burbs, supposing that energy would always be cheap.

Answer 9

Because that is what you see based on where you work.  You don't see the women who are still successful.

Also, women tend to outlive men.  So there are more older women than there are older men.

Women who are now in their 60's worked during the era when they were less valued, paid less, overlooked for advancement, etc.

When the kids needed money, who were they most likely to get it from?  Mom.     Who are the kids most likely help in return?  No one.

Answer 10

It's from improper money management. You need to save! Invest in an IRA or 401k.

Answer 11

You have a self-selected sample  - your agency deals with the poor, therefore, you see a lot of poor people.

That said, many women do end up old and poor because they outlived their husbands, they came from a generation where women weren't expected to have their own savings, and many of them can no longer rely on pensions that have been gutted by rapacious executives.

Answer 12

Women usually make less than their husbands, took time out of the work force to raise children (missing out on saving for retirement), or never where educated to save for their retirement.  Women in general usually live longer than their husbands and they may not have had any life insurance (or not enough) on their husband.  Moral of the story is to make sure you put money away for your retirement. Especially in this day and age when the employee is responsible for their retirement and not the company they work for.  Everyone should go talk to a financial adviser and make sure they are putting enough away for their retirement or they will end up just like these ladies have - and it is always harder to find employment at their age.  You have to start saving when you are young and be smart about it.

Answer 13

They were taught to depend on a man to take care of them.  Some of their husbands may have divorced them and remarried "a younger version of a wife."  Also, men generally die younger than women, and the women end up alone with little or no Social Security in their own name, especially if they didn't work.  Even if they were left in good shape at the time that their husbands passed away, they probably do not know how to invest money so that it will grow at a rate higher than inflation.  This is why feminism tries to encourage women to know how to take care of themselves, even if "they have a man to take care of them."  That man will not be around forever.

Answer 14

I think that too many employeers won't hire older people, male or female. they want someone who will work a lot of hours for many years.

Answer 15

Who says if a woman is old, poor and alone that it is necessarily THEIR fault?

I've heard younger professional women say stuff like this about their older counterparts, but for someone who paid to  to be helping these women in their various predicaments, you certainly sound very judgemental and self righteous in assuming THEY are the ones who are doing something "wrong."

In some cases, it may be poor choices on the woman's part (such as getting into drugs and alcohol or having poor work habits that cause them to be repeatedly fired) but I would say in the vast majority of cases it isn't!

Keep in mind these women came of age during a time when it was expected that they'd be full time wives and mothers or work until children came along.  The "rules" changed in the middle of their lives, and in many cases these women fell or are falling through the cracks.  So these same women who were told back in the day "don't worry your pretty little head. there'll always be someone to take care of you" are later criticized for it and then years later when husbands die or walk out, these newly destitute women are then told (sometimes with a sneer)  "NO ONE ever stopped you from having a career...who told you to be so dependent anyway?"

Also as recently as the mid-1970s, there was a lot of legalized s*x discrimination in place, and jobs were often listed in the papers as help wanted "male" or help wanted "female."  Any woman who dared to apply for work marked male generally didn't get very far.

Also,  it was very difficult for women to get into the non-traditional jobs such as the "trades" that pay considerably more money than so-called "pink collar" jobs...so they wound up trapped in traditionally female jobs which while many of them require some formal education like nursing and teaching, also paid less money than the traditionally male jobs.

In addition, those women oftentimes had to deal with discrimination and being placed on the slow track/mommy track, not to mention the glass ceiling so they lost years in the work force.  If they did continue to work while raising children, it was difficult to find and keep reliable day care, so days would be lost there, too.  

The expenses of everyday living affect women as much as it does men, but despite equal pay laws some employers insisted and some still insist on paying men in the same jobs more money than women "because they had families to support" and the woman's pay was considered secondary income...even if in reality it was not!  Even thou the women earn less money, they still have to pay the bills...and so as a result, "paying oneself" in savings tends to take a back burner.  Also, a great many pink collar jobs do NOT offer benefits or a retirement plan.  Even if such benefits were available, there's no guarantee the company will honor them...think ENRON!

As for being "alone" and if by alone you mean unpartnered, for the women of that particular part of the baby boom generation, the male shortage was there...partly due to the Vietnam war, and partly due to other factors.

As a woman grows older, it is difficult to find marriage partners because a number of men prefer to marry younger women. Yes, more women are dating younger men, but not necessarily marrying them...and a number of women still prefer to date men older than themselves...so as a consequence, they end up "alone."

Sometimes the women are "alone" by CHOICE! There is no law that says that every woman MUST get married!

As for aging, no one can help that...the only alternative to ending aging is death.

Can situations be prevented? Not necessarily...and that goes for either s*x.  No one knows what is around the next bend in the road, and the best laid plans are often laid to naught for a variety of reasons.  All any of us can do is the best we can.

Answer 16

One major reason you see more impoverished elderly women is that women tend to outlive men.

In Europe you don't see many poor elderly people because there are pension plan payments PLUS the government steps in before the elderly get that poor.  Come to think of it, I have never seen a poor elderly person in western or southern Europe (outside the UK).

And you NEVER see elderly people working.  Its just not done, people never get that desperate.

Answer 17

I don't know, I am one of them but still able to support myself without public assistance but don't know how long that will last. I am very fortunate I can work from home and as long as I can do that I will be OK.

Answer 18

Most women at 60+ were taught as young girls to be submissive, driven to take care of others their entire life, plus pushed into a career when the cost of living became a two income obligation, they have given so much yet were never taught independence. They are tired, have no one to work for are lonely depressed and need training to like themselves and to be independent.  It's an unfortunate condition, they should be honored.

Answer 19

They mooch of their ex out of spite and then support runs out.

Answer 20

They could learn to be more thrifty with their money instead of spending it as though some guy was going to come along and take care of them.

I'm so tired of women getting the stereotype of being good with money and other things where they are made to seem as though they are so much better than men. Yet like you point out, even if they've been taking in sufficient money throughout their lives they seem to end up being dirt poor at the end of them. Maybe those women should stop spending so much money on clothes, shoes, make-up, jewelery and all of the superficial stuff throughout their lives and invest that money instead.

Yeah, I'm a woman and I am sick of seeing most women this way.

And no matter what people are saying, women don't outlive men by that much, so it should not be as profound as all that.