The Gerontological Society of America

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         GSA Media Advisory
July 1, 1999                                                           Contact: Linda Harootyan

Study Warns Social Security Reform Proposals Ignore Women,
Privatization Not the Answer

Washington, DC - Older women are as liable to be poor in 2020 as today's older women unless Social Security reformers focus more attention on protecting women's interests, warns a new study released by The Gerontological Society of America.

Social Security Reform and Older Women: Improving the System Social Security Reform and Older Women: Improving the System unravels why many of the reform proposals put women in jeopardy, and lays the groundwork for a reform package that assures the most vulnerable have enough to live on. Thorough and yet to the point, this important study illustrates how indispensable the national retirement system is for millions of older women.  

"More than any other constituency, women rely on Social Security for the lion's share of their retirement income," said Syracuse University economist Timothy M. Smeeding, the report's lead author. "And as a result women have the most to gain or lose from impending reform. Older women living alone are at greatest risk."

Currently, an estimated three of every four poor older Americans are women, and the early forecasts are that poverty and insecurity will be as much of a problem for older women in the 21^st century as today, the report says. For many divorced and never married women, as well as women over 85 who live alone, the risk of poverty looms large.

The study acknowledges Social Security reform must include benefit cuts and tax increases, but at the same time, calls for a harder look at reform proposals' impacts on women. "As a society, easing women's economic burden in old age is a national imperative," Smeeding said, adding "Women are not a sideshow to the national Social Security reform effort; they are the main event."

The study urges policymakers and reformers to be cautious about trading the system's basic insurance protections and benefits for a risky, insecure privatized system, saying the rewards of privatization are questionable and probably not a good deal for most women.

"Women's lives are changing in many ways," said co-author Lou Glasse, chair of the Gerontological Society of America's Task Force on Women. "Clearly, the Social Security system will need to move responsibly to assure women an adequate income in retirement."

The report includes specific recommendations for increasing benefits for women (and men) who receive minimum benefits and live alone. It also calls for policymakers to consider the interconnected effects of Medicare reform proposals on women's economic vulnerability.

The challenge and opportunity facing policymakers is to explore ways to strengthen, not weaken the national retirement system, according to University of California, San Francisco sociology professor Carroll Estes, a co-investigator for this study.

This study was made possible through funding from the Retirement Research Foundation.

For further information, or interview please contact:

• Timothy M. Smeeding, Ph.D., Director, Center for Policy Research at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Ph: (315) 443-9042 E-mail: tmsmeeding@maxwell.syr.edu.
• Carroll Estes, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Francisco, Ph: (415) 476-5832 E-mail: carroll@sigmatwo.cncoffice.com
• Lou Glasse, Chair, Task Force on Women, Gerontological Society of America, Ph: (914) 452-4758 E-mail: louglasse@att.net