Women on Their Own in Much Worse Financial Condition Than Other Americans (PDF; 307 KB)
Source: Consumer Federation of America

he 26 percent of all households headed only by a woman earn, save, and have accumulated far less wealth than have other American households, according to a Consumer Federation of America (CFA) analysis of the most recent data collected by the Federal Reserve Board’s authoritative Survey of Consumer Finances.
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The financial differences between the 31 million women who head households themselves and all U.S. American households are substantial, according to Survey of Consumer Finances data collected in 2004 and released in 2007. The typical (median) household income of the women was $22,592 while that of all households was $43,130.

The wealth-gap is even greater than the income-gap. Women on their own had a median net worth of $32,850 compared to $93,001 for all households.

The wealth-gap reflects not only income differences but also differences in the frequency of saving. Thirty-three percent of the women, but 41 percent of all households, said they “save regularly.” And 33 percent of the women, but only 24 percent of all households, said they “don’t save.”

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 10:31 am and is filed under Business and economics, Consumer issues, Gender and sexuality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.