Older Women in Poverty: The Impact of Midlife Factors

Abstract

ࡗ Older Women in Poverty: The Impact of Midlife FactorsThis study investigates the factors contributing to older women's economic well-being from a life course perspective, assessing the effects of both midlife characteristics and later life events on women between the ages of 66-70, and 71-85. Using the 1968-1997 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the findings suggest that midlife characteristics such as workforce participation, income, and rural residence are strongly related to economic outcomes in old age. Late-life events and characteristics, however, also contribute significantly to economic outcomes even when midlife factors are incorporated into analyses. In addition, both midlife and later life characteristics contribute to the persistence of poverty in old age, with many groups of ever poor women finding themselves in poverty for over 50% of their old age years.

Family Histories and Women's Retirement: The Role of Childbearing and Marital Experiences

“…Divorced women are less likely than never married women to be covered by private pensions (Ginn 2003;D. Price and Ginn 2003) and have been found to have lower (pension) income in old age as compared to married (Arber 2004;Arber et al 2003;Fokkema and Van Solinge 2000;Vartanian and McNamara 2002;Yabiku 2000) or never married women (Fasang et al 2012;McDonald and Robb 2004). They also accumulate less wealth than women who have continuously been married (Addo and Lichter 2013).…”

Poor, Rural and Female: Under-Studied, Under-Counseled, More At-Risk

“…Welfare programs are particularly targeted at low-income pregnant women and mothers. as poor nutrition and lack of health care during pregnancy are strongly correlated with health problems throughout the lifespan (Reutter et al, 2001; U.S. Department of Commerce, 1995), while few programs are available to meet the needs of poor women in mid-life and later (Hardy & Hazelrigg, 1993: Vartanian & McNamara, 2002. Increased physical and mental illness among those who are poor results in an inability to sustain gainful employment over time (WHO, 2001).…”

“…Although persons born into poverty are at risk for a lifetime of low income, socio-economic challenges, health concerns, and mental health issues such as depression (DeLeon et al, 1989;Gatz & Fiske, 2003), poverty may begin at any point in the lifespan. Vartanian and McNamara (2002) conducted a longitudinal study of 1,921 women aged 40-59 and examined factors affecting their economic well being at ages 66-70 and 71-85. They found that relative affluence resulting from factors such as education, mid-life careers, and marital status did not necessarily prevent poverty in later life.…”

Integrating Life Course and Pension Policy Perspectives: The Case of Poverty Among Elderly Women

“…In such studies, the precise ways in which lifecourses infl uence old-age poverty risk usually remain vague, with researchers either merely concluding that lifecourses are important (e.g. Vartanian and McNamara, 2002) or that the ways in which lifecourses infl uence later life are too complex to allow the development of specifi c hypotheses (Seft on, Evandrou, Falkingham and Vlachantoni, 2011). Finally, existing research almost exclusively focuses on liberal welfare states (mostly the United States and the United Kingdom) despite Esping-Andersen's (1990) seminal contribution illustrating that social policy institutions diff er manifestly across regime type.…”