Why Retirement, Social Security, and Age Discrimination Policies Need to Consider the Intersectional Experiences of Older Women

Ian Burn, Patrick Button, Theodore Figinski and Joanne McLaughlin

No 27450, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We provide an overview of research that indicates that older women face unique challenges and opportunities with respect to work, retirement, Social Security, and age discrimination law. We present estimates of poverty by age and sex, showing that poverty increases with age for women due to older women often outliving their spouses and becoming widowed. We discuss research that shows that women benefit more than men from working longer. We then note that older women face intersectional discrimination that can unfortunately be a barrier to older women working longer. We detail how older women often “fall between the cracks” of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and are thus not well protected against this intersectional discrimination. As a final example of how women face different circumstances, we summarize research on how older women were differentially negatively impacted by the elimination of Social Security’s Retirement Earnings.

JEL-codes: H55 J14 J16 J7 K31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hea and nep-pbe
Note: AG LE LS PE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published as Ian Burn & Patrick Button & Theodore F Figinski & Joanne Song McLaughlin & Brian Kaskie, 2020. "Why Retirement, Social Security, and Age Discrimination Policies Need to Consider the Intersectional Experiences of Older Women," Public Policy & Aging Report, vol 30(3), pages 101-106.

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