Millions of women face bleak retirement futures. In 40 years, when today's 25-year-olds retire, fewer women will be retiring married, and therefore fewer will have access to a husband's retirement income. Young women continue to face a future of significantly lower wages. Caregiving responsibilities continue to fall predominantly on women's shoulders. A lifetime homemaker has no Social Security protection in her own right. A divorced spouse becomes financially better off after her former spouse dies, because a widow receives 100 percent of her deceased husband's benefit. Lower wages prompt single and divorced women to draw their benefits early, which actuarily reduces their benefits. Among retired workers receiving Social Security benefits on their own work records, the average male receives nearly 25 percent more than does the average female. Women are penalized in pension coverage due to job mobility, leaving to assume family obligations, and working in small businesses and for lower pay. Disabled women have a difficult time qualifying for benefits. Fewer women than men participate in private individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Married working women and homemakers are penalized by IRA laws. (A 29-item list of sources is included.) (CML)