A picture is worth a thousand words. At a glance, women in red states are faring poorly:
Here's a Table that tells the same story at a glance. The red states have some explaining to do.
This is no surprise to many here, but perhaps women in these states need a voting wake up call. Do women in these states know they are getting the shaft?
I have been both impressed and moved by personal stories shared here. I think mine helps explain how and why women are doing poorly in one of the richest countries:
The United States of America
So, I will share my work history story below. I think it's the story of the Average American Woman born in the late 1940s, but the latest reports depicted in this diary show that mine might be a happier story than the one unfolding for today's young women.
You be the judge. I hope the story will motivate women to fight for change.
I grew up in the North East and entered the work force in 1966.
College was not an option because my parents couldn't afford it and, at the time, neither could I because the wages were $1.25 an hour (minimum wage history).
But you know what? That wasn't a problem back then. Cream was allowed to rise to the top. Within a year I was managing a small department for a CPA firm because, when IBM came in to train us on how to use the MTST (first automated typing machine), I did better than all the others. I was also asked to design a tax return tracking system for the newly, partially automated system (punch cards) which I did. I was the highest paid woman at $90 a week.
After a few years, I left this job for a higher wage ($125 a week) to develop, build, and manage a word processing center for the largest law firm in the city. By this time, I could take the MTST apart and repair it myself. I literally helped the lawyers automate their boiler plate legal documents which was ground breaking at the time.
In short, I was in a supervisory then management job by the age of 23. There was only one problem. I was paid diddlysquat compared to men. I could see the other men in similar management positions able to support their families. I couldn't afford an apartment of my own.
In time, I was asked by an equipment manufacturer to move to Boston and join their sales force.
At age 26 I was a Sales Rep in Boston for a national word processing company. I thought I was pretty cool. There was only one problem. I know I wasn't being paid as much as the men who were supporting families doing the exact same job as I was doing. I out sold them! But I could at least barely afford a nice apartment, even though it remained empty except for a mattress and box spring.
Well, the company went out of business in time, so I got a job managing the department that produced reports for the worlds largest strictly environmental engineering firm. This was a big, complicated job with 30 employees to supervise, the engineers to correct, and interaction/coordination with several departments to get an engineering report out the door. I had arrived.
There was only one problem. I know was not being paid as much as men, some of whom had less overall responsibility than I had. I could no longer afford my own apartment because rents had escalated, and had to share with two other women.
Tired of low wages and a child to raise, I launched my own business(es) in 1979 which grew and did really well until 1990 when the entire economy of the North East imploded. I poured all but a stipend back into growing the businesss which employed nearly 40 people in total, so my "wages" were not high. I wasn't thinking about SSI payments when I aged because the businesses were doing so well. That was a big mistake, in retrospect.
With 20+ years of supervisory/management experience, I moved to Utah in 1991.
I thought that, with my decades of word processing experience, WordPerfect would be thrilled to hire me. They were not and did not hire me. I had a friend, who I made in my new neighborhood, get me in through the back door.
My starting salary in 1991 was $900 a month. I cried when they brought me to the cubicle I would be sitting in for eight hours a day. If I hadn't received child support, I would not have been able to support my daughter and myself. But, I thought that it wouldn't take long to get a better job once I got in the door. I was wrong.
I applied over and over for better jobs within WordPerfect and was rejected over and over. I was told that "someone with more experience" got the job. Most of the employees were under age 30, so I had a hard time buying this explanation. I think it was ageism. Ageism and my lack of a college degree.
By the 1990s, a new hiring world had emerged during the decade of my self-employment. If you didn't have a degree, good luck getting a job and forget about getting a living wage. There was no room for that old fashioned "cream rises" mantra.
Well, I finally landed a better job: Assistant to the Director of a Marketing Team. I got a great raise to $1,800 a month! WordPerfect closed its doors a year later. I now call it WasPerfect because at least we were treated with dignity.
I couldn't find a job anywhere that would pay more than $9.00 an hour even though, at one job I took, I literally coordinated fish tank installations for WalMart stores for the company that made the large tanks. I found installation design flaws, worked with the engineering company in Chicago, got those resolved, scheduled the installations crews throughout the country, etc. I loved the job, but the owner was literally insane. Again, I did all this work for $9.00 an hour.
I had had it with office work by this time.
I retrained to become a Pharmacy Tech using an on-line, self-study program. In three months I passed the national exam and got a job as a Pharmacy Tech. The pay? $10.50 an hour. Woo Hoo!
In December, 2002, I had to leave the job to care for my dying mom and spent one glorious year getting to really know, adore, and serve her before she passed away.
However, the stress of losing my brother, my mother, my husband, a job and two hysterectomies (Doctor couldn't find an ovary the first time), all within one year, wreaked havoc on my health and I became semi-crippled for three years with polymyalgia. I was fortunate that my mom left me some inheritance.
Fast forward, it's 2007 when I finally semi-recover. I can walk, but am mostly exhausted except for a few A Days once in a while. My pharmacy tech license had expired, but I knew I would not be able to do a "stand up most of the day" job ever again.
Fast forward again. I finally recover in the fall of 2008 and the economy takes a nose dive. I am now 60 years old and, after many job application rejections, I realize that no one wants to hire a 60 year old women who has been unemployed for a few years because of health issues.
By the time I turn 62 a couple of years later, I have no choice but to sign up for early Social Security but, because I was always underpaid, even though I worked my entire life, I only qualified for the minimum SSI amount.
And because I was forced to retire early (no one would hire me), I received a $700 a month check which dropped to $600 when I turned 65 because $100 a month is deducted to pay for Medicare Part B.
Now $600 a month is a whole lot better than a poke in the eye; however, it is not enough to live on.
Why did I only qualify for the minimum SSI benefit?
1. I wasn't married to a one person for 10+ years.
2. I was grossly underpaid for the level of services I provided.
3. I was forced by circumstance and the Recession to take early retirement.
4. Congress hasn't addressed this issue: Women's wages were always unfairly lower than mens. An adjustment could have been made, but never was.
5. No SSI adjustment has been made by Congress for those FORCED into early retirement due to circumstances beyond their control.
How do I survive?
I rent out the basement of my home to a young couple (I planned it this way), a home I wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the fact that I was the only surviving child and received an inheritance. I grow food and eat a lot of chick pea variations which are cheap and a super food for my health. I love chick peas.
This brings my income up $14,400 a year. That's approximately 130% of poverty. And I am one of the really, really lucky women over age 65. My neighborhood is safe, clean, and the neighbors are great.
I survive and I am beyond grateful that I can survive. I am also grateful that I lived a great life and find myself quite content to spend the rest of my days quietly living at home, putzing in the garden, taking care of grandchildren, reading, writing, and able to nurture my fragile health.
I just learned that the electricity system for my heart is broken, bifascicular block. Oh well, at least this oppressive exhaustion has a name.
I know this is just one story; however, I suspect this story is atypical for many women of my generation in the USA.
I am not the least bit surprised that we women are living in poverty today, especially if we neglected to either marry or stay married for at least 10 years so we could receive the higher SSI benefit from our spouse.
How will this country address these issues for today's young women? I worry about you!
I think it is up to the women to make it happen. Squeak up!
___________
THE REPORTS
You can access the interactive map seen above in this article:
Utah given flunking grade in report on women’s well-being
Hats off to the Salt Lake Tribune for this brazen reporting in this patriarchal state.
The article quotes an indepth report from the Center of American Progress. If you want to read the entire report, click here.
Click here to review the research methodology.
Based on the above report, it's easy to understand some of the root causes for the following disturbing report about how elderly women are faring poorly. Women take notice!
Extreme poverty among elderly women shot up between 2011 and 2012. What's going on?
Overall, 18.9 percent of women over 65 who lived alone were below the federal poverty threshold of $11,011 for single individuals. That's a high share of a rapidly growing group: The number of working people working over 65 is up 67 percent in the last decade.