Purpose: As part of an ongoing effort to analyze the distributional implications of potential policy reforms to the U.S. Social Security system, we consider the widely discussed reform of earnings sharing. Such an approach has been viewed as a way to "update" Social Security's family benefits based on marital status and as a means to…

Via a simultaneous analysis of different life course pathways (marital, occupational, and childbearing histories) and different outcomes, this article addresses the question When does childlessness matter in late life and how? Survey data from Amsterdam (N = 661) and Berlin, Germany (N = 516) are used. Lifelong childlessness results in smaller…

Assessed effects of widowhood, divorce, and lifelong singleness on income and evaluations of finances at two points, and investigated factors associated with satisfaction with level of living in old age. Analysis of data from two interviews with 2,047 older adults revealed that marital status affected economic circumstances and perceptions of…

Analyses of indicators of informal social supports for respondents aged 55 and older included in a national Survey Research Center study indicated that the widowed elderly generally had an advantage over the married and that sex differences were similar between married and widowed elderly. (Author/RC)

Compared cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses in a national sample of women widowed in mid-life. Longitudinal comparisons failed to demonstrate a significant decline in income or financial well-being upon the death of spouses. Data analysis indicated a major reliance on earnings of the widow and Social Security benefits. (Author/RC)

This speech focuses on women and private pension plans, such as private pension coverage and smaller benefit amounts. Pension issues affecting women as employees include participation in plans, vesting, break-in service, benefit accruals, integration with Social Security, sex-based actuarial tables, portability, inflation, and individual…

This report reviews the legal status of female homemakers in the Virgin Islands and makes suggestions for action and legislation which will be more equitable in protecting homemakers' rights. The laws described in the report apply to wives who work at home as well as outside the home, but the report mainly concerns homemakers without outside…

The U.S. population includes over 23 million women aged 45 to 64 and 17 million women aged 65 and over. Their life experiences are very different from those of men. The median total income of women trails that of men at all ages. Women at all ages are twice as likely as men to be poor. Poverty among the elderly is closely associated with sole…