In March, we celebrate Women’s History Month. Social Security has served a vital role in the lives of women for more than 80 years.

Women have longer life expectancies than men, which means they live more years in retirement and have a greater chance of exhausting other sources of income. It’s important for women to plan early and wisely for retirement.

Our benefits portal at www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement provides detailed information about how life events can affect your Social Security retirement benefits. These events may include marriage, widowhood, divorce, self-employment, government service and other life or career changes.

Your earnings history will determine your benefits, so we encourage you to verify that this information is correct. You can create your personal my Social Security account at www.ssa.gov/myaccount and view your earnings history. If you find an error with your earnings, it is important to get it corrected so you receive the benefits you earned. Our publication, How to Correct Your Social Security Earnings Record at www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10081.pdf, provides you with details on making a correction.

If you would like to learn more about how we can help women plan for retirement, check out our online booklet, Social Security: What Every Woman Should Know. You can find it at www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10127.pdf. Please consider sharing it with family and friends. It could change their lives for the better.

Jeri Fields is the manager of the district Social Security office in Ironton.