Women at Risk  |   Back to Who Is At Risk Main

The risk of suffering a significant decline in standard of living during retirement is especially acute for women. There are several contributing factors:

Women live longer than men, spend more time in retirement and are widowed more frequently. A typical 65-year-old woman has a 31 percent chance of living to age 90 or older, as compared to only 18 percent for a typical 65-year-old male.         Social Security payments to women are on average lower than for men. The reason? Women on average spend less time in the work force, and their lifetime earnings are lower.         Fewer women participate in employer-provided retirement plans. For those women who do, their monthly payments are generally less than male retirees.         Less than one-third of part-time workers, who are disproportionately women, participate in employer-sponsored pension plans.

"With less income of all kinds, older women are at greater risk of poverty than men. Although few are poor while married, as they grow older the great majority of women outlive their husbands and about half live alone. ... [W]idowhood brings reduced income and increased risk of poverty." Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2003

Life-contingent annuities have proven to be an important retirement vehicle for millions of women. Women age 65 and over are more likely to rely on annuities for retirement income than men. And women of all ages are more likely to have a nonqualified annuity than an IRA.

Americans for Secure Retirement seeks to make it easier for women to have an adequate standard of living through retirement. Women have a vital interest in Congress taking steps to make guaranteed retirement paychecks more accessible.

Learn about others who are at risk.

WOMEN	FARMERS	HISPANIC - AMERICANS	WORKING FAMILIES
The risk of suffering a significant decline in standard of living during retirement is especially acute for women...Learn more	Farmers would benefit significantly from increased access to retirement vehicles that pay a steady stream of income for life...Learn more	Hispanic-American workers face a greater risk to their retirement security than workers overall...Learn more	For the vast majority of working men and women the main sources of guaranteed income are increasingly weak...Learn more