ABSTRACT
Dr. Robert Butler, former Director of the National Institute of Aging, has observed that the “problems of old age in America are largely the problems of women.” The National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity has challenged the myth that poverty has been eradicated. This observation becomes more salient when one examines the economic status of American women. During the 1970’s, families headed by women increased more than 51 percent, from 5.6 million to 8.5 million. There are “9.4 million single-adult femaleheaded families and the number is growing ten times as fast as male-headed families.” Women, blacks, and other minorities are the most disadvantaged, with 38 percent of aged blacks and 30.8 percent of Hispanic aged living at extreme poverty levels. Half of all the aged poor are single women who live alone. Some attribute the economic plight of older women to the inadequacies and inequities of income maintenance programs.
