Despite increases in labor participation for women, Social Security continues to materialize patriarchal reliance by diminishing worker benefits for females.

There has been a large increase in the labor force participation (LFP) of women and a narrowing of the gender wage gap. With these changes, women are more independent of their husbands in determining their economic well-being while of working age. Increased market wages and narrowing of the gender gap increase bargaining power in household financial decision-making (Pollak 2005; Knowles 2007). We might expect women to be more self-sufficient when they reach old age as a result of these drastic changes. Due to Social Security rules, however, wives remain dependent on husbands in old age (Levine, Mitchell, and Phillips 2000). Even while women have increased their LFP and received higher wages, a husband typically works more years than his wife, between maternity leave and child rearing, and receives higher wages. As a result, most women end up relying on spouse and survivor benefits from Social Security. Over the past 50 years, the fraction of women eligible for their own benefit increased by almost 100 percent. In 1940, less than half of female recipients of Social Security were eligible for their own retired worker benefit, with eligibility defined by having at least 40 quarters of covered earnings. Almost three-quarters of current female beneficiaries are eligible to receive a benefit based on their own work history. However, the fraction of women receiving some type of dependent benefits has been well over 50 percent for the past several decades.20 Only since the mid-1990s has this fraction begun to fall (Social Security Administration, various years). Furthermore, more than 90 percent of recent female recipients are entitled to a retired worker benefit smaller than their potential survivor benefit, making eligibility for wives’ own benefits less relevant.21 In all of these cases, wives are impacted by husbands’ choices. Data from SSA on dual beneficiaries, those eligible for both their own worker benefit and a spouse or survivor benefit, show how this dependence has changed over time. For wives receiving spouse benefits, the ratio of own benefit to spouse benefit increases from 1995 to the present. This is expected since women have been earning more in the labor market and working more years over their lifetimes. This ratio has been flat recently, though, for survivor benefits. This suggests that women are just as reliant on survivor benefits as in previous years. The likely explanation for the difference in trend between spousal dual beneficiaries and survivor dual beneficiaries is that the latter group is older than the former. The labor force characteristics of survivor beneficiaries has not changed substantially over recent years. However, we expect a rise in the ratio in the future as women with stronger worker histories (those currently receiving spousal benefits) receive survivor benefits.22