Women Pathfinders of the '70s, Falling in a Pension Gap

Women in general, not just leading-edge baby-boom women, are more likely than men to be poor in retirement. Notwithstanding gains in education and employment, women still tend to spend more time out of the workplace and to work in part-time jobs and low-paying fields.

But, at least, women who entered the workplace recently are closer to matching men's salaries, which means they have a bigger earnings base on which to save. Since 1979, when women earned only about 63 cents for every dollar male workers earned, the gap has narrowed to 81 percent of the median earnings of male workers in 2006.

I worry about how the women who helped transform the workplace in the 1960s and 1970s will fare in 2020 and 2030.

"Retirement for this generation of so-called liberated women isn't turning out to be this golden age they may have anticipated," said Olivia S. Mitchell, executive director of the Pension Research Council at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "Women today had a lot more job and educational opportunities than their mothers had, so things are better in the sense of being much more independent. But if women didn't focus on retirement savings and retirement medical benefits and so on, they could end up in dire straits in old age. And that's made tougher by changing marital and divorce patterns and mobility patterns."

We need to keep in mind the tougher challenges that all women face in retirement and support changes to help prevent poverty among elderly men and women. We should also counsel the young women in our lives -- our daughters and nieces and friends -- that they need to plan ahead.

Join Martha M. Hamilton and Mary A. Malgoire, president of the Family Firm in Bethesda, for an online chat at noon Tuesday at washintonpost.com.