Social Security provides guaranteed, inflation-protected, lifetime benefits for widows, divorced women, and the wives of retired workers. Sixty three percent of female Social Security beneficiaries age 65 and over receive benefits based on their husbands' earning records, while only 1.2 percent of male beneficiaries receive benefits based on their wives' earning records. These benefits offset the wage disparity between women and men. As we move forward with reform of our nation's Social Security system, we must remember that women face special challenges. In the meantime, Congress must take the economic well-being and security of women into account when discussing reform.
Women clearly are at a disadvantage when facing retirement.
And poor, elderly women have the most at stake in the Social Security debate. Any reform that is enacted must keep the safety net intact. Our mothers, our daughters, and our granddaughters are counting on us.