Black women face various challenges as they grow old. With declining health and no income, old age can become a nightmare for most Black seniors. While there are many ways to successfully aging, the financial struggle of Black women makes it difficult to experience that. The structural long-term health and economic racism seem to converge to offer a dismissal outlook for their final years.
What Statistics Say About Women and Aging
Studies indicate that Black women encounter more health challenges as they get older than their white counterparts. Most chronic diseases and disabilities are common among Black communities, which leads to shorter and sicker lives compared to white Americans. Statistically:
- Older Black women are more likely to live in poverty than White women
- About a third of Black couples and over two-thirds of single Black elders rely on Social Security as their only source of income
- About 45% of women above the age of 20 years have high blood pressure, which is a rate 50% higher than white women
- Black women are 40% more likely to die of breast cancer compared to their white counterparts
- Black women are more than twice as likely as whites to get Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia
- Black women are about 80% more likely to get diabetes twice as likely to be hospitalized than whites
Getting older is often associated with several health conditions among Black communities. For most Black women, they tend to suffer from high levels of diabetes, hypertension, and certain forms of disabilities. As the body becomes frail, the health problems limit their ability to continue working. Unfortunately, most of them are forced by circumstances to continue working and bridge the gap of declining income with age.
Why Older Black Women Struggle with Health and Wealth Issues
One of the main reasons Black women are vulnerable to these health and wealth issues is because they tend to outlive their partners. With age, they end up living alone and isolated, compounding their health risk. Although Black women have experienced substantial improvements in all areas of life, disparities still exist on both social and economic fronts.
For many older Black women, they end up as long-term caregivers for their aging or ailing parents. They may also be caring for ailing spouses and grandchildren, which forces them to cut short their careers or leave their jobs altogether. Such issues compounded with the reduced income come at a critical time when they need financial resources the most.
Leaving the career early means that Black women do not get to pay into company-sponsored retirement plans like 401(k) and pension plans. Their payments to social security also reduce significantly, implying that their monthly checks become less after they retire.
Impacts of Historical Disparities
The problems that Black women face is also ingrained in Black people’s history. Blacks have endured economic racism for years, which has resulted in lower wages, low rates of home ownership, and almost no savings for Black men and women. Consequently, these economic inequities have created multiple generations of poverty that continue to shape the lives of many African Americans.
The situation gets worse for older Black Americans who have faced all forms of discrimination from education and healthcare to criminal justice systems. With such a background, most of them have lower education and income levels. Unfortunately, these inequities are expected to continue haunting Black communities, with the average net worth of Black Americans predicted to be zero by 2053.
The Increasing Wealth Gap
The increase in the wealth gap makes life even more difficult for Black women as they get older. Overall, Black families have lower incomes than their white counterparts. This makes it even more difficult to save for their retirement. While white families had a median wealth of $285,000 as of 2022, a typical Black family has a wealth of only $44,000, which is about 15% of a typical white family.
The wealth gap goes beyond family wealth to include their safety net. Most Black Americans do not participate in employer-sponsored retirement accounts. About 42% of Black Americans have a retirement savings account with a typical balance of about $20,000. This is a staggering contrast to over 65% of White Americans with a balance of $50,000 in their retirement savings account. In addition, only 35% of African Americans own mutual funds or stocks compared to more than 50% of white people.
With such inequities, staying healthy and living a quality life as one gets older becomes a tough call for many Black women. Unfortunately, most of them have no access to vehicles that allow them to save for the golden years and end up depending only on social security.
Most Black women face significant health and wealth challenges as they get older. With historical disparities and wealth gaps playing against their favor, it is important to empower them with proper knowledge. Any efforts towards educating Black families to make more money and save for later can play a huge role in improving the situation.
Additional reading:
New documentary focuses on financial health in Black community | Watch ‘Our America: In the Black’. https://abc7chicago.com/our-america-in-the-black-generational-wealth-financial-health-microsoft-philanthropy/14302730
Greater Wealth, Greater Uncertainty: Changes in Racial Inequality in the Survey of Consumer Finances. https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/greater-wealth-greater-uncertainty-changes-in-racial-inequality-in-the-survey-of-consumer-finances-20231018.html
Reconceptualizing Successful Aging Among Black Women and the Relevance of the Strong Black Woman Archetype. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4542898/
Navigating Solo Aging: The Unique Challenges Black Women Face. https://generations.asaging.org/unique-challenges-black-women-face-aging-solo
Health Equity Among Black Women in the United States. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8020496
