Older women are spooked by the economy. Their vote is up for grabs
Daniel de ViséThe midterms are coming, and older women voters are spooked about the economy.
That’s the message from a new AARP survey of American voters, with a focus on women ages 50 and over. It comes in the run-up to a pivotal round of midterm elections in November.
Half of women voters 50 and older expect the economy to get worse in the next year, the survey found. Only 31% expect it to get better.
Half of older women feel less financially secure now than a year ago, the survey found, compared with only one-third of men the same age.
Either party could win the older women vote
Political candidates of both major parties will be crafting ads and speeches to reach older women, a demographic group whose 2026 vote could go either way, the survey's pollsters said.
Younger women tend to vote Democrat. Older men lean Republican. But older women “are not a monolith,” said Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster who conducted the AARP survey with Democratic pollster Margie Omero.
That’s why AARP chose to focus on them in the poll, released Feb. 10.
“The reality is that women 50-plus are one of the largest voting groups, and also one of the most up-for-grabs,” Anderson said.
Older women are a bloc that “both sides of the aisle have the potential to win over,” she said, “with the right focus and the right message.”
Cost of living is the biggest issue facing America today, according to both women and men who answered the AARP survey.
Women ages 50-64 are worried about the economy
Throughout the survey, however, women in the 50 to 64 age range voiced more concern about the economy than either older women or men.
For example, women ages 50-64 are less confident that they’ll have enough money for a comfortable retirement. Here’s the breakdown of voters who said they are “not that confident” or “not confident at all” of a comfortable retirement:
- 55% of women 50-64
- 45% of women 65 and older
- 43% of men 50-64
- 27% of men 65 and older
The survey reached 2,593 voters, including 1,188 women 50 and older, in December 2025.
Women in the 50 to 64 age group, a mix of older Gen Xers and the youngest boomers, the “Beatlemania” boomers, face unique economic pressures.
“Many of them are still supporting either children under the age of 18 or adult children,” Anderson said. “They are being stretched by the need to care for those both younger and older than them, while also struggling to care for themselves.”
Older women voters often feel 'invisible'
Politically and economically, older women “often feel like they’re invisible,” Anderson said.
“They are feeling undervalued, both financially undervalued and unappreciated,” Omero said.
In the AARP survey, women ages 50-64 reported financial insecurity across many economic areas. Overall, just 35% of women ages 50-64 said the economy is working well for them personally, compared with 47% of women 65 and over.
Three-fifths of women 50-64 said their own personal finances fall short of their expectations, compared with two-fifths of 65-and-older women.
Older women voters also registered less confidence in the economy than men.
Just over half of women 50 and older said they are not confident they will be financially better off one year from now, compared with 39% of men the same age.
Older women are more likely than older men to be worried about affording health care costs, by a margin of 44% to 32%.
The findings suggest politicians will have better luck winning the votes of older women if they focus on long-term economic solutions, such as protecting Social Security, controlling health care costs and improving affordability across the board.
“Touting short-term economic improvements is fine,” Anderson said, but that focus “does not solve for the longer-term financial anxiety that these women are also facing.”
Women's economic fears are not new
The survey reflects enduring financial challenges that women in America face, particularly as they approach retirement.
Women are more likely than men to care for relatives or friends, research has found, often putting their own health and finances in peril.
More than two-fifths of working women have served as caregivers to people other than their children, according to a 2025 report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
On average, women workers have only $3,000 in emergency savings, compared with $10,000 for working men, the Transamerica report found. Women workers also have only $56,000 in retirement savings, on average, compared with $92,000 for men.