INTHEBLACK November 2021 - Magazine - Page 40
F E AT U R E
// F I N A N C I A L F R E E D O M
“A N A C C O U N TA N T I S T H E M O S T I M P O R TA N T
PERSON IN ANY WOMAN’S LIFE. I COULD NOT
H AV E G O T T H R O U G H M Y F I N A N C I A L S I T U AT I O N
W I T H O U T A N A C C O U N TA N T. T H E Y A R E AS
I M P O R TA N T T O YO U AS Y O U R D O C T O R , A N D T H E Y
W I L L A D V I S E YO U B E T T E R T H A N A N Y F I N A N C I A L
A D V I S E R AT A B A N K .”
DONNA WARD, AUTHOR
have children – to what extent do gender
inequalities persist when you remove
children from the equation?”
Author and editor Donna Ward is one
of the many older women without children
who has experienced the assumptions and
expectations about women like her first-hand.
“I found there was an expectation for me
to care for family members. I was not only
expected to care for my mother, which,
incidentally, I wanted to do, but my sister
also expected me to look after her son while
my mother was ill. I disavowed her of that
opinion,” says Ward.
“We talk about the ‘motherhood penalty’
and the consequences of women leaving
work to care for a family. When an older
woman leaves work to care for a parent or
another family member, it’s very hard for
her to get back into the workforce.
“I think that needs to be recognised and
compensated for. I’m calling it the ‘spinster
penalty’,” says Ward.
MYTH BUSTING
The report addresses the assumptions faced
by this group and offers recommendations
to address policy gaps and structural issues.
“The first misconception this report
challenges is that older single women
without children have no absences from
their careers because they don’t have
childcare responsibilities,” Hamilton says.
“We found that, while not having
children sometimes created employment
opportunities, two-thirds of the women
in our online community had experienced
a long involuntary career interruption
because of ill health, redundancy or care
responsibilities for ageing parents – and
with that comes loss of income and future
financial security,” Hamilton says.
40 ITB November 2021
Above: Donna Ward, author
The report has also identified concerns
about how the women are going to have
their own care needs met as they age.
“One of our recommendations was really
about how we can improve the aged care
system to support people who don’t have
family around them to continue living in
the community,” Hamilton says.
“The women were extremely worried
that without a spouse or adult children of
their own they wouldn’t have any informal
support to help them keep living in their
home.”
The researchers have also found that
women over 45 without partners and children
are more likely to face financial hardship
later in life, with single women having
lower household incomes, lower personal
superannuation and lower household net
wealth than those with partners.
“While many participants reported that
not having children increased their earning
capacity early in their careers, this did not
translate into better financial security later
in life. Living on a single income hampers
their ability to save and set aside money for
voluntary superannuation contributions and
home deposits,” says Hamilton.
HOUSING CHALLENGES
Homelessness is another serious issue.
Hamilton says that, while some women have
indicated they had successfully saved for a
home deposit, their mortgage applications
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were rejected because banks considered their
reliance on a single income too risky.
The women who have been successful
in obtaining a mortgage are worried about
being able to keep up with repayments,
according to the report.
“With a lack of downsizing opportunities
and a shortage of cheap housing, it
created a strong sense of insecurity among
participants, with one in five participants
renting out rooms or listing their homes on
Airbnb,” says Hamilton.
Among a host of policy recommendations
set out in the report, there is a call for more
secure and affordable housing options and
better access to financial products and
services for older women.