Republicans' hostility to everyone who isn't white and male and conservative and wealthy is by now irrefutable. But how deeply those hostilities run through all facets of their policy is worth highlighting. Slate's Helaine Olen does just that in this case study about
how Social Security cuts are particularly damaging to women.
In national politics, the war on women isn’t always about denying women the right to choose to end a pregnancy or to have health insurance pay for contraception. It’s also about denying women their financial dignity.
So is Social Security another front in the politicians’ affronts to the lives of American women? “Absolutely,” says Nancy Altman, co-founder of the advocacy organization Social Security Works and co-author of a book with the same name. “Attacks on the program are attacks on everyone, but they are especially attacks on women.” […]
From the time an American can first claim eligibility at age 62, the majority of those receiving a Social Security check in retirement are female—56 percent to start off, to be specific. But because women outlive men, that discrepancy grows only larger with time. By age 85, about two-thirds of the recipients are women.
Moreover, women—who earn less than men and take more pauses from the workforce (due in part to their assumption of caretaking duties for everyone from children to elderly relatives)—are more dependent on Social Security for their economic well-being in their final years than their male peers are. According to the National Women’s Law Center, 30 percent of women 65 or older rely on Social Security for at least 90 percent of their income. Men? Only 23 percent are so reliant. And women’s checks are smaller, too. The average retired female worker receives more than $300 less a month from Social Security than a male one.
That's one of the reasons that proposals like
Martin O'Malley's to provide work credits for caregiving is so important. Hillary Clinton has
hinted that she's looking at the issue, too. Any Democratic proposal for strengthening and expanding Social Security needs to include this component.
And every Democratic lawmaker and candidate should be calling out demands that Social Security be cut as part of the War on Women.