Poverty of older women in Slovenia

Abstract

This article aims to problematize a socially relevant, but politically overlooked issue of poverty among older women. Data show that poverty among women is a challenge for most EU countries and wider. However, it cannot be explained without understanding gender-specific life courses of women. We present the differences between older women and men in terms of the risk of poverty and compare them with those in EU countries. The article is based on secondary data, i.e. the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU SILC), which enable comparisons among EU countries. We have established that the gender gap in terms of risk of poverty widens in old age. The at-risk-of-pov-erty rate for women is much higher in Slovenia than in other EU states. The gap is especially large in the age group 75 and over. Slovenia has not been successful in coping with the risk of poverty problem, because it failed to introduce special measures to reduce the general risk of poverty and gender gap.