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Why Women Should Vote (Overview)
Why Women Should Vote - To Protect Social Security
While Social Security is important to all Americans, women are especially dependent on Social Security’s guaranteed, lifetime benefits. Yet leaders in Washington are pursuing policies that could put the Social Security system in serious jeopardy.
How is Social Security threatened?
The White House and some in Congress are pushing hard to "privatize" Social Security: diverting funds from the system into private investment accounts, leading to deep cuts in Social Security benefits because there won’t be enough money coming in to pay promised benefits
Social Security is also threatened by the huge tax cuts for the wealthy that have been passed since 2001, which are draining away money needed for benefits over the long term. For about the same cost as making permanent the tax cuts given to the richest 1% of households, we could make sure that Social Security can pay 100% of promised benefits for the next 75 years
What do women, in particular, have at stake?
A majority of Social Security beneficiaries are women and over 95% of adults who receive benefits as the relative of a disabled, deceased or retired worker are women
For more than four in ten unmarried women (divorced, widowed, or never married) age 65 and over, Social Security provides 90% or more of their income. For nearly six in ten unmarried elderly African American and Hispanic women, Social Security provides 90% or more of their retirement income
Why would privatizing Social Security be an especially bad deal for women?
Social Security is a predictable and guaranteed source of retirement income, but the value of private accounts goes up and down with the stock market
Social Security benefits are paid for life, and are adjusted each year for inflation, but private investments can be outlived, drained by high health care costs, or eroded by inflation
Social Security replaces a higher percentage of pre-retirement earnings for lower earners — such as women who were paid less or took time out from work — an important feature that a private account can’t duplicate.
For a young worker and family, Social Security provides the equivalent of a $400,000 life insurance and $350,000 disability insurance policy, but a private account won’t have accumulated anywhere near that amount if a worker dies or is disabled at a young age.
Social Security provides automatic benefits for spouses, surviving spouses and divorced spouses who have been married at least 10 years, but in a privatized system, it is unclear whether spousal benefits would continue.
If you think our leaders in Washington aren’t doing what they should to address the challenges you face in your life—REGISTER and VOTE! Remember, elections can be decided by just a handful of votes, so YOUR VOTE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
To register to vote, get information on voting (your polling place, how to vote absentee, etc.), or learn about the candidates in your area, go to http://capwiz.com/nwlc/e4/ and enter your state or zip code.
The National Women’s Law Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has been working to advance and protect women’s legal rights since 1972. Women’s Voices. Women Vote is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that seeks to mobilize women to register to vote and to go to the polls on Election Day. Neither organization takes positions on candidates or elections, and nothing herein should be construed as an endorsement of any candidate or party.
