Across the globe, it’s common belief that widows and divorced women face discrimination, and in the United States, poverty rates for those who have left or lost their husbands are far above average and expected to continue to rise, according to two recent studies.
In twelve of seventeen nations polled—which included interviews with 17,595 respondents—by WorldPublicOpinion.org, about four in ten perceive there is some or a great deal of discrimination against widows. The same is true for discrimination against divorced women. On average across all seventeen nations, just 28 percent say there is no discrimination against widows at all, while 20 percent say there is a little, 27 percent some, and 16 percent a great deal. Similarly, for divorced women, an average of 27 percent say there is no discrimination, 21 percent say a little, 28 percent some, and 18 percent a great deal.
“Discrimination against widows and divorced women appears to be a phenomenon of many countries, not just some traditional cultures,” says Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. “People in most countries, including developed ones, recognize there is at least some discrimination.”
And in the United States, the share of elderly women living in poverty is highest among divorced or separated women (37 percent), followed by widowed women (28 percent). These percentages will continue on the upward trek, as the baby boomers age and as more women divorce or separate, according to Timothy Smeeding, director of the Center for Policy Research and distinguished professor of economics and public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
American women who divorce are more vulnerable to poverty than their northern and western European counterparts. American divorced women don’t have the same “safety net” under their income and they often get less than one-half of the pension and other assets of their former husbands, according to Smeeding’s research. A divorced woman who either took time off to raise the kids or never entered the labor force could find herself with neither assets nor job skills needed to keep her out of poverty.
