All the Older Single Ladies in Poverty

[Lydia Leftcoast]

92. It was a low amount, but I thought that it was what the widow had earned in her own right

OR 50% of her husband's SS.

When my father died, my mother was really worried, because either half of my father's SS or what she had earned in her own right would be a low amount. That's what had happened to her aunt.

However, in the meantime, the law had changed so that widows got their husband's SS or their own, whichever was larger.

I told my mother, who had made disparaging remarks about "women's lib" that she could thank feminism for the change.

In addition, thanks to feminism, what happened to my grandmother could not happen again.

My grandfather arranged his schoolteacher's pension so that it stopped five years after his death. His reasoning was that my grandmother would marry again (she didn't) and that "another man would be living off his pension." (He had his mean moments.) I told my grandmother (who also disparaged "women's lib&quot that feminism had insured that husbands can no longer change the terms of their pension without their wife's permission.