Our Social Security system is unfair to millions of working women, and Congress should adopt a reform plan with three important changes that would enable women to be more financially secure.

First, Social Security reform must guarantee benefits promised to those 55 and older. Second, Social Security's anti-poverty safety net must be strengthened by increasing the benefit paid to low-wage workers - most of whom are women. And third, younger workers must be given the choice to decide whether to devote part of their payroll taxes to personal retirement accounts (PRAs).

In Social Security, retiree benefits are funded by taxes paid by workers, and 40 workers paid into the system for every retiree when the program was created in 1935. Today, however, only three workers pay for each retiree and this will decline over time to just two workers paying per retiree. By 201, Social Security will begin paying out more than it takes in.

Without reform now to address long-term problems, the government will need to either increase taxes or make drastic cuts made in other programs or in the benefits of future retirees.

Unfortunately, the effects on women will be especially severe. A Social Security Administration policy brief estimates that if nothing is done, the poverty rate among women will double.

By failing to keep pace with the changing nature of American families, Social Security's outdated benefit structure results in serious inequities that disadvantage working women.

For example, the current system will pay less in benefits to millions of dual-earning married couples compared with couples earning the same income with only one spouse working outside the home.

Furthermore, the system is unfair to divorced women who are denied spousal or survival benefits because their marriage lasted less than 10 years. And, it is terribly unfair to the hundreds of thousands of single workers, divorcees, or unmarried couples - with no young children - who die before retirement because the system does not give back one penny of the money they paid into the system.

Personal retirement accounts can help address these inequities. With a PRA, workers would invest among only a limited number of large mutual funds - one of which would be government bonds - and would own the account and be able to watch it grow over time.

At retirement, the worker who chose a PRA would receive a proportionately smaller benefit from Social Security, but also be able to rely on the assets that have built up in her own personal account. And, if she died before retirement age, the account would be part of her inheritance.

In addition, women would benefit from PRAs because most are designed to be more progressive that the current system - allowing lower wage workers to put more in a personal account than could higher wage workers. An analysis by Social Security actuaries shows that workers who choose a PRA would build a bigger nest egg than the existing system would pay.

Personal retirement accounts are not the sole solution to Social Security problems, but they are essential to reform. Strengthen the existing safety net, educate workers about the program, and then give women the option to choose; we're smart enough to make the decision that is right for us.

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Leanne Abdnor served on the President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security, is executive director of Women for a Social Security Choice and a member of the advisory board of the Coalition for the Modernization and Protection of America's Social Security (www. generationstogether.net).