Boomer divorces still soaring with ugly consequences for women

"Gray divorce" rates yield 45% decline in standard of living for Boomer women

Boomers—the “love to work” generation—set new US records for divorces. And now new data reveal Boomers are still divorcing, even into and after retirement. The grass apparently continually refreshes greener. In one case near to my heart, a 76 YO husband divorced a 71 YO woman after 38 years of marriage and many more years together before then. No one was more surprised than she was after decades of undisputedly being the magic that powered his business success.

Boomer women, roughly 60 to 78 years old this year, between were the first generation of women to work outside the home in large numbers. That means they entered the work force at a time doing so was considered…well…sweet—too frequently with an employer assumption there was a man somewhere in the picture who would do the real earning. Now the largest gender pay gap is among older Gen X and Boomer women, with women earning 26% less than men their age in the same occupations. Retirement planning, never avant-garde, also was very slow to wake up to the retirement needs of single women, leaving millions of divorced Boomer women in a position they never imagined at that jubilant wedding decades ago.

The downside is stunning. From the article, “women 50 and older who divorce experience a 45% decline in their standard of living, compared to 21% for men, and Pew [Research] finds they are more likely to live in poverty than men.”

No easy fix here, other than to be aware, and that it’s never to late to start catching up. And, of course, all of this should a major heads-up to those considering the alleged charms of being a tradwife: history says there’s always a younger woman out there eager to serve.