Why Older Women Face Greater Financial Hardship Than Older Men (pension plan, dump)
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To blame retired women for not doing better long-term financial planning seems unfair.
Women in retirement now, started working when job listings in the paper were separated by sex, when many decent paying career paths were closed to them.
Not only were higher paying jobs difficult to obtain, but buying a house, getting a credit card in her own name, etc. were also a challenge. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act was passed in 1974, but even then it was a struggle.
Many women relied on their husbands for financial security. if that fell through, they were screwed.
Hold the effin phone. You've got to be kidding me.
1. Our society tells women that they are less intelligent than men. Girls in school are told to never look like they are smarter than the boys.
2. Our society tells women that they are not as strong as men. I'm talking more than physical strength.
3. Our society shames women for wanting careers. If a woman prioritizes career and making money over being a wife and mother, she gets called a "feminazi."
4. Women are paid a fraction of what men are paid. No, this isn't because women don't know how to negotiate. There is still the cultural belief that women can depend on their husbands to support them. So they can be paid less.
5. Women are told that they are less able to do math so that many (but not all) become intimidated by finances.
6. Many men are intimidated by high earning women. Many married men go out of their way to control family finances.
Basically, there is a cultural issue where women are taught to be dependent on men. Women would pick higher paying career if men weren't intimidated by women and make it hard for them in the workplace. You all remember the Google incident from a few years ago where a male employee sent out a companywide manifesto declaring that women were notbiologically made for high paying jobs. It's this type of BS that still permeates our society.
SO, if we are so concerned with women and their financial security, the best thing we can do is to tell women to get all the education they can get, prioritize their career, earn the largest salary possible, reduce the number of children or have no children at all. This will make more women financially secure.
As a single woman, I made it a priority to make a six figure salary.
I had a low paying job and I have done very well financially. I started investing in the stock market when I was young, and loved learning about investing. Growing wealth is not only for high earners. I am sure you have read about the secretary that died with millions. It’s all about how you invest your money. The majority of my investments are in my Roth IRA, growing tax free with large gains. I retired at 59, and can live off my savings, in order to defer Social Security until 70.
Women are far more educated than men. The difference is many aren't willing to do STEM/military/contractor related jobs that can pay a lot of money, regardless of education level.
You can go on any date right now, and I've been on many, and the amount of highly educated women who choose mediocre jobs after studying mediocre majors is astounding.
Most women want the man to be the retirement plan, with the marriage being the backbone. But as we all know, marriage and kids do not guarantee future financial peace. People with kids get divorced every single day.
Well, what a detailed description of how idiotic it would have been.
I would argue it's almost always idiotic to marry because most of the time you have to put the man in first place (with no guarantees or assurances in reality).
Well, I think marriage is still necessary for children. Couples without kids can organize their relationship however they want, but there are always two people involved in procreation, and both of them need to be equally legally responsible for the kids.
It appears to me that the issue of putting the man in the first place has largely waned, first among the educated class even in my generation, and more broadly in the Millenial generation. Ultimately, if someone finds herself trapped in a bad (financial or otherwise) situation with some guy, divorce is always an option, and she has only herself to blame for staying in that situation. But then (rather than finding excuses), she has to fully stand for herself in the marketplace, which is competitive for both men and women.
He didn't mention the low life jobs men do (gas station attendants, retail, waiter, window washer's and other service jobs that if you don't own the business you don't make squat). I guess those are all respectable jobs as long as men do them.
I realize there are certain jobs that men will do that women are far less likely to do (mainly because for a long time those jobs were not really open to women). Underwater welding comes to mind; marine salvage; etc., etc. However, like the poster said those are high paid jobs. If women had not been systematically discriminated against for so long who knows what the landscape would look like. It's not like the bias and discrimination has totally ended yet either.
It starts early with Cinderella and GI Joe and how boys and girls play and are socialized.
Some women can be pretty lethal and competent in historically male fields. In the past, they had to act like men to get to participate. Usually they have to be far more competent than an equal male counterpart. Younger women are getting more opportunities and that can only be a good thing.
Perhaps there need to be more guarantees for women with respect to bearing and raising children because men are let off the hook and women are left holding the bag. It's going to be a problem moving forward and the birthrate is down and the country cannot grow without replacing the population.
And this destroys the whole "it's unfair that women earn less than men" myth.
If you walk onto many college campuses, look at the majors in which women dominate: almost always teaching/social work/humanities, all of which tend to be lower paying jobs. You will rarely find a lot of women in engineering for example. (The one outlier is medicine and nursing. More women enter this one field out of all the STEM professions).
I agree. Women are far smarter than men and are far more educated. But they still don't want to do jobs that men are willing to do, blue collar or white collar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wile E. Coyote
Perhaps there need to be more guarantees for women with respect to bearing and raising children because men are let off the hook and women are left holding the bag. It's going to be a problem moving forward and the birthrate is down and the country cannot grow without replacing the population.
I guess you've never heard of child support or alimony. Men absolutely do have grave financial consequences for impregnating women and leaving or filing for divorce. Now if a woman slept with a broke man or doesn't go for child support, then that's her fault, and she will be left holding the bag.
But the last time I checked, single mothers with prosperous fathers of their children, aren't holding any bag.
Quote:
A former Pirelli calendar model has won a £75m divorce settlement from her billionaire Saudi ex-husband after arguing in the high court that she had to meet her “reasonable needs”.
Well that depends
A parasitic guy who’s looking for some dumb chick to finance his lifestyle? Absolutely he wants the financially independent woman
A man who is looking to be a husband? He would actually avoid the “independent woman”. Such a woman would typically find it very difficult to be a wife who accepts her husband as the leader of the family. Smart men avoid this headache by not pursuing such women.
Even smarter men marry women who make more money then they do, women who are financially savvy, and and are fully capable of taking care of themselves and, if necessary, their husband and children should some unforeseen disaster strike. At any moment in life, your spouse can be ripped from your life, or suddenly become disabled. Or worse yet, the "leader of the family" decides that his stay at home wife and their 2.5 kids are boring and not sexy anymore, so he has a affair with the independent career woman at the office, and the wife and kids end up living off whatever they can get in the divorce. It would actually be better for them if he died, at least then they could get life insurance (maybe) and SS for the minor children.
I met quite a few men who weren't interested in a woman who doesn't NEED them, but I've met far more who respect a woman for being as capable as they are of supporting themselves, and not becoming a leech on her man, a woman they see as their equal in a marriage, not their "follower".
Last edited by TheShadow; 01-02-2022 at 08:16 AM..
I had a low paying job and I have done very well financially. I started investing in the stock market when I was young, and loved learning about investing. Growing wealth is not only for high earners. I am sure you have read about the secretary that died with millions. It’s all about how you invest your money. The majority of my investments are in my Roth IRA, growing tax free with large gains. I retired at 59, and can live off my savings, in order to defer Social Security until 70.
I think that this is a good point. When people start the habit of investing when they are young they will have their entire working career to figure out how to invest and to grow their nest egg.
I remember reading The Truth About Money by Ric Edelman and really seeing for the first time how time and compound interest can do a lot of the work for you. It's way too easy to fall into the mindset of not being able to participate in your 401K because you don't make very much and you can't afford to. But when you factor in that you are losing the opportunity to get the company match when you don't contribute to your 401K, you realize that you can not afford NOT to invest.
I agree. Women are far smarter than men and are far more educated. But they still don't want to do jobs that men are willing to do, blue collar or white collar.
I guess you've never heard of child support or alimony. Men absolutely do have grave financial consequences for impregnating women and leaving or filing for divorce. Now if a woman slept with a broke man or doesn't go for child support, then that's her fault, and she will be left holding the bag.
But the last time I checked, single mothers with prosperous fathers of their children, aren't holding any bag.
Oh please. Who said anything about PROSPEROUS fathers. We're talking about your average, median income family. According to the Pew Research Group, the average middle class household has an income between $50K and $145K total for the entire family (one or both spouses working)
The majority of divorces end up with the dad being assigned a few hundred bucks a month child support per kid, which the mom ends up having to get garnished from his check (when he is working), but which pays for a small fraction of the cost of added housing/utilities (got to have at least one more bedroom for the kids), food, clothing, day care/afterschool care, toys/extras (including things like cell phone plans for older kids, music lessons, sports teams, etc). Not to mention the added responsibility of caring for the kids 24/7 except for visitation days.
Props to dads who do pay their share and provide 50% of the care, but seriously, that's only what should be expected.
And this destroys the whole "it's unfair that women earn less than men" myth.
If you walk onto many college campuses, look at the majors in which women dominate: almost always teaching/social work/humanities, all of which tend to be lower paying jobs. You will rarely find a lot of women in engineering for example. (The one outlier is medicine and nursing. More women enter this one field out of all the STEM professions).
Or look at how many women are in the well paid but physically demanding/dangerous jobs such as mining, the trades, construction etc. Tends to be a very low number. Women deliberately avoid these jobs and flock towards the humanities which pay less. This is why they get paid less as a whole.
Nope, nope. You have to follow this out. All the women that enter college to pursue STEM don't always graduate. Of the women that do graduate, most leave the STEM field. The reason is usually that the male dominated environments make it difficult for women.
Surely you aren't saying that these issues don't exist?
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