Nancy Dailey focuses exclusively on the economic aspects of upcoming women baby boom retirement in the United States because this is the first generation of women who have spent a majority of their adult years in the labor force. In light of these employment patterns Dailey poses the compelling question "Have baby boom women earned their right to retire?". Her research findings indicate that the majority of baby boom women will not be financially ready to retire when time arrives. Despite the advancements of women in the labor force, women will remain dependent on the help of others. The inequity of wages between men and women combined with women caregiving responsibities which often entails interruptions in years worked penalize women in retirement. The current Social Security system is predicated on masculine assumptions of long-term stable employment that fails to acknowledge the unique circumstances of working women.
Although Dailey presents a good base of statistical research, I believe the weakness of this study is her failure to investigate possible policy recommendations to alleviate disadvantages to women in retirement. At the end of the book Dailey only devotes 3/4 of a page to solutions but there deserves to be more.
Overall, this book poses a good analysis of the problem but fails to follow through in policy recommendations. Regardless, it is a good read. This topic is so important. It is too bad this doesn't receive more mainstream media coverage.
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