Older adults represent a growing portion of the U.S. population and older women have a longer life expectancy, on average, than older men. Prior GAO work has
found that challenges women face during their working years can affect their lifetime earnings and retirement income. For example, we found women were
overrepresented in low wage professions, paid less money than their male counterparts during their careers, and were more likely to leave the workforce to care for
family members. Taken together, these trends may have significant effects on women’s financial security in retirement. GAO was asked to report on the financial
security of older women. This report examines (1) women retirees’ perspectives on their financial security, and (2) what is known about the financial security
of older women in retirement.
In all 14 focus groups GAO held with older women, women described some level of anxiety about financial security in retirement. Many expressed concerns about
the future of Social Security and Medicare benefits, and the costs of health care and housing. Women in the groups also cited a range of experiences that hindered
their retirement security, such as divorce or leaving the workforce before they planned to. Women in all 14 focus groups said their lack of personal finance
education negatively affected their ability to plan for retirement. Many shared ideas about personal finance education including the view that it should be
incorporated into school curriculum starting in kindergarten and continuing through college, and should be available through all phases of life.
Individual women’s financial security is also linked to their household where resources may be shared among household members. According to the 2016
Survey of Consumer Finances, among households with older women, about 23 percent of those with white respondents and 40 percent of those with African American
respondents fell short of a measure of retirement confidence, indicating their income was not sufficient to maintain their standard of living. The likelihood of a
household reporting high retirement confidence rose in certain cases. For example among households of similar wealth, those with greater liquidity in their
portfolio and those with defined benefit plan income were more likely to report high retirement confidence.
You can find the full GAO report here.