Religious communities urged to do more for older women in poverty

Published: 2007-11-20

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Older women living in poverty are an often invisible and overlooked population that could be better served by religious communities, said participants of an interreligious dialogue at Jesuit-run Fordham University Nov. 15. According to U.S. government statistics cited at the presentation, women who reach age 65 now have an average life expectancy of an additional 20 years. More than 12 percent of older women live below the poverty level. Older women living alone are more likely to be poor than those living with families -- and half of women over 75 live alone. Each dialogue participant outlined how her religious tradition encouraged respect for the elderly and how her personal experience brought her to a deeper understanding of the growing needs of older women in poverty. The speakers were a Presbyterian minister, a rabbi, a Dominican sister, a Methodist deaconess and a Muslim chaplain.

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