The forgotten ones.

The politicians are banging on again about the huge gaps between rich and poor and I have to say that regardless of which party they come from, they are all responsible for things that happened in the past.
We now have a larger gap between rich and poor than we have had since the 1940's and every government we have had since then is partly responsible. However, politicians are blind and every one of them is missing a huge number of 'forgotten people' - WOMEN.
They assume that everyone has inherited property from parents or married and bought a property with a husband who had a well paid job but how wrong they are. Most women my age did not have parents who were wealthy enough to ensure that we went to university. In fact, we were not expected to have a career after leaving school, perhaps a little job in an office or a shop and then get married, stay at home to bring up the children and keep house. In those days there was no help in the form of Child Tax Credits either, families had to survive on the husband's wage no matter how small because women did not go out to work. We were not supposed to have any ambitions of any kind and in the 1960's, 70's and 80's women were paid a pittance whatever job they did - we were second class citizens, something that has continued for years and in some ways still does.
Any woman on her own following a divorce where there was no property to divide, found it extremely difficult to keep up with those around her. With low wages and ever increasing rents there was never a chance for many to get on the property ladder especially if they did not re-marry. Many did not realise that they would not receive a full pension on retirement because most had been paying 'the married woman's stamp' on their National Insurance and as for pension schemes, they were never informed correctly about these or given the opportunity to buy into them, or if they were optional, many could not afford them due to low wages.
Many of the women from my own generation are destined to be very poor pensioners but they will always remain the dignified and silent 'forgotten ones'.