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Today, one in five of America's retired single women and widows lives in poverty — and millions more may be just one tragedy or illness away from sharing that fate. But the Bush administration continues to explore Social Security and Medicare "reforms" that are likely to make the status of retired women even more unstable.

The roots of retirement insecurity for women lie in their working lives. Women earn less and spend more years out of the work force, caring for children or parents, leaving less money to set aside for retirement.

As divorced or single parents, they outnumber their male counterparts 5 to 1, and thus are more likely to have responsibility for rearing minor children — again cutting into their ability to save.

They're also less likely to have jobs that offer retirement plans. And, because they earn less, their Social Security checks are smaller when they retire. Today, the checks of newly retired men are, on average, 47 percent larger than those for women.

Since they have less in savings and lower Social Security payments, women benefit significantly from retiring as half of a married couple. But, at 65, women can expect to outlive their husbands by three years — their income diminished by the loss of their husband's Social Security and pension, while expenses for items such as housing and transportation remain just as great and medical expenses rise.

From ages 65 to 74, 53 percent of married women have a spouse present. But by ages 75 to 84, that figure drops to 34 percent. For those 85 and older, 79 percent were widowed.

Unfortunately, more than half of American women older than 65 — 58 percent — are making do without the fiscal support of a husband, while almost three-quarters of older American men are living with their wives.

Many other older women face the fiscal and emotional hardships of divorce. About 10 percent of women older than 65 today are divorced or have an absent spouse.

Poverty rates for an aged couple are among the lowest in the nation, but those for aged widows and divorced women are among the highest. Less than 3 percent of married women age 70 to 74 live in poverty, compared with 16 percent of widowed or divorced women and 22 percent of never married women.

A number of recent trends have made retirement more secure for aging women, including requirements that wives must consent if survivor benefits are to be waived under their husbands' pension plans, shorter vesting requirements for pensions, improvements in asset exclusions under Medicaid, and the greater number of women who have earned Social Security benefits in their own right.

But these positive developments may soon be offset by two more dangerous trends. The first is the movement away from retirement plans that pay a guaranteed amount every month, toward plans like 401(k)s, which require employee contributions and offer no guarantees. With more time out of the work force and lower disposable incomes to contribute when they are employed, women can look forward to a significantly smaller nest egg at the end of their rainbow than men.

But, since they live longer, women at age 65 actually need to have saved an additional 15 percent merely to maintain whatever income level they had in their early retirement years.

And the harsh lesson learned after the Internet bubble bust was that defined contribution plans can lose huge amounts of value in a relatively short time.

Compounding the problems caused by this shift in pension planning, though, is a continuing effort by the Bush administration and the political right to privatize Social Security and to cut back on Medicare benefits — efforts that are expected to continue despite the resounding rejection of similar efforts last year.

Recently, it was reported that Republicans may seek a new bipartisan effort to rein in the costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

But even partial privatization of Social Security would lock in the income disparity women face during their working lives, ensuring a lower-income retirement. Medicare cuts would mean more out-of-pocket expenses for a demographic that has less money saved. To the extent that any new arrangements would replace a portion of Social Security's early-death and disability coverage, protections for women would likely suffer further, because the assets in their new savings accounts are unlikely to have had enough time to reach meaningful levels.

If the social safety net that allows older women a chance at a secure retirement is to be rewoven, it is critical that lawmakers take into account the unique needs and circumstances of American women. Policymakers must protect their economic security, lest their likelihood of poverty — already 70 percent higher than the rate for retired men — climb even higher.

As the November elections approach, politicians must remember that women matter, and that women are not timid about expressing their voice when they vote.

Teresa Heinz Kerry is chairman of the Heinz Family Philanthropies and the wife of U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry. Jeffrey R. Lewis is president of the Heinz Family Philanthropies. Write to him at jlewis@heinzoffice.org.