With summer over, many Americans savor memories of sun and fun. Yet for others —women especially — summer is actually a busier-than-normal time.

When schools let out, working mothers start juggling more than usual, managing their year-round jobs and their summers-off kids. It is hard work to find summer programs and child care and then to get kids there and back — and it all gets tougher in August, when most camps and recreation programs close.

If working mothers are single, as my mother was for a decade in my childhood, these obstacles become even greater. In summer, I saw how hard my mother worked — as others vacationed — to provide for my brother and me and how much she worried about money.

Now, every time I take even a brief summer break, I recall that after a bad divorce, my mom went without a vacation for years at a time. She eventually got back on her feet, but memories of those lean years left me with a deep commitment to helping increase women's economic security.

Now, as autumn arrives, I think about the twilight years of paid work. In my new position as Pennsylvania state treasurer, I focus on the fact that it is especially hard for women to save enough for retirement.

The statistics are sobering. Women suffer from clear disadvantages when it comes to saving for retirement. They earn, on average, only 79 cents for every dollar earned by a man for the same job, a $300,000 loss in income over the course of their careers — and less to invest for retirement.

There are 62 million women in the U.S. workforce today aged 21 to 64, but only 45 percent of them have access to, or participate in, a retirement plan. Research just released by the Employee Benefits Research Institute shows that more than 44 percent of Americans 28 and older are not saving nearly enough to retire.

Women are far more likely than men to take time off work to raise children — and usually during peak earning years. This might be good for families, but bad for the women themselves. Women retiring today have 13 years of missed income. As a result, their Social Security and employer-provided retirement benefits often are much smaller as well. The average Social Security benefit to women is $867, while men receive $1,170.

Then, of course, women must face the math of living longer, on average.

Consider widowed women. They have only 59 cents for every $1 of wealth owned by a widowed man in this country, and 80 percent of women in this country die single.

Today, we know 25 percent of female-headed households have zero or negative net worth, and we know women are three times more likely than men to fall for the first time into poverty after retirement — for the reasons described above and because they are more likely to help others in medical emergencies, as well.

It is a sad fact that women are often disadvantaged economically by doing what we should value the most — taking time to care for others.

This fall, even in this challenging economic period, we should stretch to help women improve their economic security. If you are an employer, please do make that job offer to a returning-to-the-workforce mom — and provide retirement benefits. If you are a woman working in the paid workforce, please set aside the cable bill or the money you want to give to a friend in need and invest instead in a RothIRA. And if you can afford it, consider contributing to your mom's or sister's investment account or RothIRA.

Rob McCord is Pennsylvania's state treasurer.