Elderly Woman Living with Extended Family, Broken Bow, NE, 1886.G.R. Russom family in front of their sod house. "An old settler and one of the prominent men in Custer County Nebraska." Library of Congress: Prairie Settlement Nebraska Photographs and Family Letters, 1862-1912
Family living arrangements have always had an impact on the need for long term care. Women were less likely than men to have accumulated assets of their own that they could use to take care of themselves in retirement, and unmarried people of both sexes were more vulnerable in old age because they had no partner who could provide them with physical and financial assistance. The most vulnerable group of all were unmarried elderly women.
Older women were far more likely than older men to be unmarried (whether they were widowed, divorced, or never married). Only about one-third of age 65+ women were married in 1880, less than half the percentage of age 65+ men who were married. Although their life expectancies weren't much longer than men's, most women married men who were much older than themselves, so they often out-lived their husbands. Older unmarried women largely had to rely on children and other family members for help, and often ended up living with them. 10% of married women and nearly 60% of unmarried women age 65 or older were living with children or other family members as dependents in 1890. (Costa, 1997)