I have developed one such legislative proposal which would address the social, economic, and psychological needs of persons approaching retirement. The purpose of my Bill, HR 3640, is to foster the development of pre-retirement education programs to be conducted by the federal government, state and local governments, state and area agencies on aging, colleges and universities, and the private sector. The objective of these education programs would be to provide individuals of retirement age and their spouses with the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills and attitudes to assure successful living after retirement. Additionally, the programs would provide for two studies: one, to consider alternatives to full-time employment for persons of retirement age; the other, to evaluate the effectiveness of pre-retirement education programs. Today we hope to assess many of the problems midlife women confront and discuss questions such as: To what extent will solutions to the problems of midlife also prevent crises such as poverty, loneliness, and isolation faced by many older women? What Congressional action should be taken to stimulate government and private industry to create innovative job opportunities to allow midlife women to fulfill occupational and family responsibilities? How can we alleviate the numerous misconceptions about midlife women? The issues raised today should ultimately stimulate the development of national policies responsive to the changing attitudes toward midlife women. Mr. BURTON. Now I will call on my colleague from New York for any remarks he might want to make. Mr. Green. Mr. GREEN. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I simply want to commend you for putting together these 2 days of hearings. I think the issues that we are facing, the questions of job reentry, continuing education and preretirement planning for women, are very critical ones, and I commend you for the distinguished panel that you have assembled to tell us more about these important issues. Mr. BURTON. Thank you. A Congressperson and a great Member of Congress, Mary Rose Oakar from the State of Ohio. STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE MARY ROSE OAKAR MS. OAKAR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to commend you for having this hearing and having such a distinguished group of panelists. I look forward to hearing their testimony. There are just a few things that I would like to talk about. I think one of the basic problems that confronts women in general, whether they are younger or in midlife or older Americans, is the fact that they are discriminated against economically. There is absolutely no question about that and, increasingly, women are becoming heads of the household. For example, last year alone there were 8.2 million women who were classified as heads of households and of these, 3.2 million were widows. Many of these women who became heads of the household had that responsibility thrust upon them. They are the displaced homemakers. Very often they were not in the job market before and they had a very, very difficult time not only adjusting, but finding a job. It is also true that once women find a job, they are extraordinarily discriminated against in terms of wages and I would like to cite a few figures comparing the average wages of women compared to men. This is not to say that men should not make a just salary or we want the salary of men to be less, we certainly feel it should be more. But, if you look at the national statistics, you find that on an average a man earns $17,891, a woman earns $10,861, and the national median income for a man with a high school education-a high school education is $4,000 higher than a woman with a college degree. Fewer than 15 percent of male workers earn less than $15,000, but only 7 percent of female workers earn more than $15,000, and it is accurately prevalent in terms of the discrimination when you get to such issues as unemployment compensation. I was appointed by the Speaker to the National Unemployment Compensation Coalition and I am appalled at the manner in which certain States treat women. For example, women have more specific information to give on forms. They have to give their health condition. They have to give their marital status, and this is not always true of men. In some States when a man and a woman who happen to be married, lose their jobs and they both apply for unemployment compensation, the man is allowed to get unemployment compensation, the woman is not. The chairman of the Select Committee on Aging, along with yourself, Mr. Chairman, appointed me to chair the Task Force on Women and Social Security. We will have a hearing later this month. Social security also discriminates against women. For instance, a woman receives benefits based on her husband's earnings only when she arrives at the age of 65. What happens to the woman who is in her fifties, for example when her husband dies? A divorced mother is ineligible for dependents benefits during the early child-rearing years. Benefits are not provided for children of displaced homemakers. And these are just a few examples, and believe me, there are many, many more in the social security system that relate directly to the economic burdens that fall upon the shoulders of women. I am very, very happy that we are having this comprehensive hearing, and I look forward to the testimony of the witnesses so that we can arrive at solutionslegislative solutions, attitudinal solutions-to correct inequities as they relate to women. Mr. BURTON. Thank you very much. Mr. Hopkins. Mr. EVANS. I have no statement, Mr. Chairman. Mr. BURTON. Mr. Whittaker. Mr. WHITTAKER. Mr. Chairman, I have no comments at this time. Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Whittaker. I have received the prepared statement of Mr. Charles Grassley, and if there are no objections, I will submit it for the record at this time. Hearing no objections, it is so ordered. [The prepared statement of Representative Charles E. Grassley follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE CHARLES E. GRASSLEY Mr. Chairman, I join you in welcoming this opportunity to hear and consider the National Policy Proposals Affecting Mid-life Women. In a sense of the word, modern American women are enjoying what amounts to a latter-day renaissance. The technology of recent decades has freed them from any traditional domestic labors, giving them the time to pursue other interests and to explore new opportunities for self-fulfillment, both social and economic. This is a welcome and overdue development. Like all major social changes, however, it disturbs traditional cultural patterns and results in economic dislocations that impact severely on some segments of the society. In this case, the midlife woman is among the most severely affected by this change. Evidence of this is seen in the relaxation of state divorce laws over the past twenty years. A 1975 Congressional Research study on this subject reveals that between 1960 and 1974, the U.S. divorce rate rose from 9.2 to 19.3 per thousand marriages and was increasing at an equivalent or higher rate each year. As a corollary, the number of minor children involved in divorce actions rose from 350,000 in 1955 to 1.1 million in 1973. Today this annual figure exceeds 1.5 million and CRS reports that there is every indication that this trend will continue.1 Other scholarly research confirms that the trend to easier divorce laws has greatly increased the incidence of divorce over the past two decades. Opinion varies on whether the relaxation of divorce laws is good or bad. However, the fact that it substantially affects the economic problem of mid-life women seems apparent, and this bears on the subject of today's hearing. Last year's hearing on this same topic confirmed that many women suddenly thrown on their own resources, and often responsible for child support, face bleak economic prospects in both their current and their latter lives. While this fact applies in a general sense, it is strikingly true in rural areas and among farm wives who, while in marital status, contribute to the family economy in an unique way. Better solutions are needed to improve the economic prospects of mid-life women. Within marital arrangements, the best solution is the kind of adjustment that will promote martial unity and provide for adequate survivor benefits. Additionally, there is a strong role for the private sector which has a responsibility to facilitate the entry of women into the work force and to reward them on the basis of merit. Federal solutions also need greater attention. Among existing HEW programs, the program for Aid-to-Families-with-Dependent-Children provides essential assistance to many women. This program was conceived as a kind of mothers' pension plan for families with no father. It has a serious flaw, however, since its conditions actually contribute to the separation of families.3 Another proposal which approaches the problem from a different angle is a Homemaker Retirement Bill, proposed concurrently by Congressman Paul Trible of Virginia and Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, which would allow every homemaker to own an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) despite the fact that she is not, by current IRA definition, a wage earner. I am one of 79 current House cosponsors on this bill which recognizes that the work of the homemaker has a substantial economic value and appreciates the merit of 30 to 50 million mid-life women who are approaching retirement age without any type of retirement income. The majority of the elderly and a disproportionately high percentage of the elderly poor are women who are approaching retirement age without any type of retirement income. The present prospect is that this will continue to be the case unless we can find preventive solutions. I join those here today in hoping that this hearing will result in progress toward helping to make their lives better and fuller, Mr. BURTON. For our first witness, we will hear appropriately enough from a member of a profession which has come to the fore in advising the Nation on a broad range of human problems. As a psychologist, Dr. Joyce Brothers is well qualified to present her views. And as a nationally respected TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, and book commentator, I know she will have a clear and important message for us. We have your statement, Doctor, and will include it in the hearing record. Please feel free to summarize your testimony. [See appendix 1, p. 99, for Dr. Brothers' prepared statement.] STATEMENT OF DR. JOYCE BROTHERS, PSYCHOLOGIST AND COLUMNIST Dr. BROTHERS. I thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. BURTON. As a long-time fan of yours, it's a personal pleasure for me to have you present. Dr. BROTHERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. 1 Jean Y. Jones, CRS Research Paper, "Divorce and the American Family." pp. 11-12. 2 Journal of Marriage and the Family, August, 1975, pp. 537-547. Jones-CRS. The moment the word "midlife" is combined with the words, "woman" or "female," two gigantic, virulent forces automatically take precedence over, and inevitably color any other topic of discussion, whether the subject be jobs, family, marriage, divorce, sex, death, or taxes. This overpowering double-headed monster attacks, and in some way, cripples every American female, especially in her middle years, whether she is a successful career woman in Chicago or New York, a working-class mother in a small Georgia town, a poor factory worker in Massachusetts, or a suburban housewife in Oregon. These forces that play a part in every women's life are not a product of those raging, hormonal changes we've all heard so much about, but are a traditional homemade product we all use and take for granted. The product's been around a long time and is considered by some to be as American as Congress, or apple pie, but unlike either of these two venerable institutions, it's a killer. This double-edged weapon that stultifies, wounds and cripples is forged from ageism and sexism. We see it every day. Most of us ignore it, or even accept it as something that is inevitable. It isn't! And I feel this is why this committee is meeting today. People often become impatient with what seems to be a preoccupation with these isms, but to ignore or gloss over them in order to move directly to a discussion of more specific problems is to spend time and money treating only the symptoms of a very serious disease. Attitudes and traditions, however, are deeply ingrained and take time to change, so it's important, necessary to treat and alleviate the symptoms through the media, through legislation and educational' processes with the hope that by raising public awareness, the disease itself will be exposed, recognized, and eventually cured. Of course, men, too, are victims of these twin prejudices. It's sexist, for instance, to assume that a real man wouldn't or shouldn't dare to weep, or that he alone should bear the responsibility of providing for the family, or of protecting the family. We all know that men suffer from ageism, but we also know, that a man in his 50's is in his prime. He's a young president, or executive, or business leader, while a woman at that same age is often considered to be over the line, or a bit long in the tooth. Why is there this discrepancy in attitudes about aging between males and females? I suspect, once again, it has very little to do with hormonal changes, for we now know that men, too, undergo hormonal changes in midlife. I believe it has to do with how men and women define themselves as individuals and how they are defined by others from childhood on. With the few exceptions of the John Travoltas and the Robert Redfords of the world, most males are not defined primarily in terms of their appearance. Many, if not most, women are. While it may be an advantage for a male newscaster, or a male secretary or office worker, or a male on almost any job to be attractive, we all know that realistically how a man looks just isn't considered as important as it is for a woman. His appearance isn't at the core of his identity or his sexuality. He identifies himself in many other ways, so that when he begins to have bags under his eyes and lines on his forehead, his self-image is not shattered. He may regret it, but he's able to keep it in perspective. Too often, women have been taught to view themselves as commodities whose value is dependent upon appearance. If a man's had a good relationship with his wife, he doesn't worry too much that she'll start to wander, or perhaps even to leave him, because he's getting a paunch, or because he's not as pretty to look at across the breakfast table. He doesn't usually have any deep anxieties that his boss is going to be looking for reasons to ease him out because colleagues who come in the office, or women in positions of power, may find him less appealing, if not depressing to look at. He probably doesn't worry either that his colleagues or his boss will look a bit suspicious if he happens to forget a name or an address. He knows they won't expect him to be emotionally unstable or wooly headed just because he's in his fifties. The traditionally passive role tends to make the woman dependent and this pattern of dependency increases her fears. The woman who is in her middle years today grew up in a period where most women defined themselves through their husbands and families. Often, by the time a woman reaches her midforties or fifties, the family is already fragmented. The children have grown up and she may find herself widowed or divorced. Often, for the first time in her life, she's alone. The strong and supportive figures have disappeared. At the time when she most needs a strong sense of who and what she is, she's caught in the midst of an identity crisis. The woman who starts to work, or to look for jobs at this time is usually terrified. She has almost no confidence. Her education's rusty, she fears she can't compete and she's reentering the business world after a long period of being dependent upon a male. If she's been accustomed to letting others make decisions, or she has given most of herself to her mate or her children for 20 years, she can be expected to suffer from many anxieties at this time. The woman who has consistently defined herself through others needs a period to shift gears, a time to readjust, to reeducate herself before she can expect to succeed. The low self-esteem and the fears of the midlife woman stand in her way whether she wants to achieve success at home or in the marketplace. One of the most important keys to success is expecting to succeed. Too often, from a very early age, women are programed for failure. Those who expect success tend to experience some successes and the experience of success tends to lead to more success. According to studies conducted by David Shaffer of the University of Georgia and Carol Wegley of Kansas State University, a competent, ambitious woman often stands alone, feared and despised by men and derogated by unsympathetic women. Even today, apparently, women who aren't afraid of competing with men, women who don't defer, get little support from men, or women. They found that even enlightened college students still prefer a woman whose thinking is traditionally feminine. To want to succeed is still perceived as an intrinsic part of the masculine sex role. In order to build her self-esteem and to achieve her full potential the midlife woman needs to learn to disregard and ignore negative attitudes and biases. The woman, who has for so many years been taught to be dependent and compliant must learn to be independent. |