Imagine the face of senior poverty. Who do you see? If you see a woman, especially a woman of color, you’d be spot on. That’s because the same challenges that affect women in their younger years, follow them and magnify as they age—income inequality, low wage jobs, discrimination, societal expectations of women as caregivers, lack of financial education. When you add declining health, longevity as compared to male partners, racial disparities, and disability to the mix, the result is a full-blown crisis of illness, hunger, depression, and isolation.
During this season of Jack Frost at the window and fires in the hearth, it’s time we sharpen our focus on the seniors who could be, quite literally, left in the cold. The challenges of navigating the winter months as a low-income senior are immense. For 6.3 million older adults in the United States, wintertime stretches the term “fixed income” into a reality of fixed poverty.
