"Women have a harder time for a couple of reasons. They live longer than men, who tend to look for female partners significantly younger than they are. As heterosexual women age, therefore, the pool of possible partners shrinks. Then again, some women may prefer to stay single. Several studies have shown that older women often enjoy their independence and are less interested than men in re-partnering.
Still, the economic effects of gray divorce on women can be brutal. Gray-divorced women age 63 and older face a poverty rate of 26.9%, compared with 11.4% for gray-divorced men and only about 3% for couples who stayed married or re-married after a divorce.
Social Security is supposed to keep seniors out of poverty, but its rules leave behind many divorced women. The program lets women access their ex-spouse’s benefits only if the marriage lasted at least 10 years. That’s not enough time for many gray-divorced women, who receive an average annual Social Security benefit of $10,995, the lowest of all groups studied by Brown and her colleagues."
~ B. Steverman
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-19/divorce-destroys-finances-of-americans-over-50-studies-show
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