Race, Gender, and Senior Economic Well-Being: How Financial Vulnerability over the Life Course Shapes Retirement for Older Women of Color

With sizable increases in the concentration of wealth and income among households at the very top in recent decades, the rest of the population has a progressively smaller share of economic resources, with the most vulnerable among us left with just crumbs of the economic pie. In U.S. society, the economically vulnerable are not evenly distributed across society and are much more likely to be people of color, women, and those who cannot earn money in the labor market—the disabled, children, and the elderly. Households of color are more likely than White households to live in poverty in old age; similarly, older women are more likely than older men to live in poverty ( Administration on Aging, 2014 ). When risk factors are combined, as in the experience of older women of color, the likelihood of facing economic insecurity and poverty is heightened even further. Retirement security builds on economic resources accumulated across the life course; thus, vulnerabilities earlier in life lead to cumulative disadvantage in retirement. Additionally, due to rising life spans, growing health expenses, and declining security from employer-based pensions, economic insecurity in retirement across the U.S. population is expected to increase among future retirees ( Ellis, Munnell, & Eschtruth, 2014 ; Meschede, Sullivan, & Shapiro, 2011 ). Experiencing heightened barriers to economic stability at numerous points across their adult lives, women of color are particularly likely to have insufficient retirement resources. This paper provides an overview of the economic vulnerabilities of women of color as they prepare for their later years, looking at how gaps in wealth, workplace benefits, and other risk factors accumulate over time to disproportionately position women of color in economically precarious circumstances in retirement. This analysis highlights the importance of understanding the ways in which both race/ethnicity and gender contribute to the economic experiences of older women of color, both separately and in combination.