Exclusive AARP Poll: Women 50-Plus Are the Wild Card in 2024 Elections

Cost of living is chief concern

Asked to identify the biggest issue facing America, 38 percent of respondents cited the cost of living, 32 percent said immigration and 20 percent said threats to democracy. 

Despite economic indicators such as declining inflation and recent record highs in the stock market, only 28 percent of women surveyed said they expect the economy to improve over the next year, while 42 percent said they expect it to get worse. More than half (51 percent) said they are not confident they will be better off financially in the coming year.

“I think what we’re seeing is more of a lag” between what the economic data shows and how people see their own financial situation, Omero says. “It’s really going to take a while for people to feel that their personal economic situation has stabilized and feel that the time of high inflation is more in the rearview mirror.”

Soltis Anderson says the results show a continuing skepticism about the economy among older women. “I think people still believe that we are in a very unstable world and that even if things might, in the short run, seem like they are getting a little bit better, there’s not a lot of confidence that that will stick,” she says.

AARP (photos: Getty Images)

Women 50-plus pessimistic about country’s future

Women 50-plus are very worried about where the country is headed. A large majority (70 percent) told pollsters they believe the country is on the wrong track. Nearly half (47 percent) said America’s best days are behind it; only 27 percent said the nation’s best days are ahead

“We found that a lot of our respondents feel like things are unstable and they’re concerned about the future,” Soltis Anderson says. “They feel things are unraveling a little bit and there’s no clear path forward.” Their closely divided views on who should lead the country show that the majority of 50-plus women don’t blame a single political party for the country being on the wrong track, she adds.

AARP’s LeaMond says the survey shows that women “don’t believe that elected officials are listening to people like them. They are worried about their financial security and political division in the country. And many are stretched thin caring for loved ones. They want policymakers and political candidates to pay more attention to their day-to-day needs and take action.” 

For example, she says, “an overwhelming 84 percent of women voters 50-plus agree that elected officials should do more to support unpaid family caregivers.”

To Omero, the wrong-track response is an outgrowth of how divided the American public is.

“This is a number that is going to be hard to move quickly,” she says. “It’s something that is going to have to happen when we feel that we’re a little bit less divided; that people feel they can talk about politics with their friends and neighbors and family and not feel that it’s going to get heated or combative.”

AARP (photos: Getty Images)

Retirement could be out of reach

Among women 50 and older who are employed, more than half (54 percent) are concerned that they won’t have the resources they need to retire when they want to. Among those who are retired, 45 percent said they feel less secure financially than they did a year ago, and 41 percent told pollsters they aren’t as well off as they thought they would be at this point in their lives.

“I think for women 50 to 64, a big theme that we found is just that they are concerned about the ability to have the retirement golden years that they were hoping for,” Soltis Anderson says. 

Older women wonder “if they’ll be able to retire and kick back and hang out with their kids or grandkids,” she says. “Then there’s also a portion of that group that really just is trying to get by day to day and isn’t even really able to spend a ton of time thinking about what those golden years will really look like.”

LeaMond says women in particular “face an uphill battle when it comes to their financial security. On average, women get paid less than men. And they are more likely to forgo promotions and other opportunities or take time out of the workforce to care for children and adult loved ones.” 

The results include “lower incomes, less ability to save and, eventually, smaller Social Security checks, which are based on lifetime earnings,” LeaMond says. “This is why AARP is fighting for policies like paid leave, tax credits for family caregivers and protecting and strengthening Social Security now and into the future.”