Women and Retirement Security

Female baby boomers face unique challenges and constraints as they approach retirement. Over the course of their lifetimes, these women will have spent less time doing paid work and more time giving unpaid care to their families. For these reasons they tend to contribute less to pension plans, earn lower salaries, have less money in savings, and have higher poverty rates than similarly aged men. With support from the Foundation, Heidi Hartmann will organize a conference to tackle these and other issues key to women’s retirement, and to examine the factors responsible for their different retirement outlook. Participants at the conference will contribute papers related to the effects of past employment, marriage patterns and ethnic background, caregiving, health, and access to healthcare on the economic prospects of elderly women, as well as the situation of retired women in different industrialized countries. Hartmann will compile the papers for publication as an edited volume.