Investigation into the needs of poor minority single mothers

¶ … Poor Minority Single Women

The needs of poor minority single women are often misunderstood and just as often are simply unknown to organizations and groups in a position to assist these women.

The objective of this study is to examine the needs of poor minority single women in order to make identification of these needs for the purpose of informing agencies, institutions, organizations, groups and individuals who have the resources and who wish to assist this specific group of the population.

The work of Linda Gordon entitled: "Women, the State and Welfare" speaks of the 'feminization of poverty' and states that women, whether they are widows, divorcees, or unmarried mothers...have always experienced more poverty than men." (1990) Over the past twenty years "families maintained by women alone have increased from 36% to 53% of all poor families." (Gordon, 1990) Gordon states that economic opportunities for minority women are "even more dismal than those for majority women, this shift has increased minority poverty and exacerbated racial inequality." (Gordon, 1990) Gordon states that the poverty rate "for households with children has always been greater than that for households that do not have children and the difference has always been greater for women-maintained households." (1990) Obstacles in the labor market include women being unable to find full-time employment as well as being underpaid once they do find employment. Gordon states that women early approximately 66% of what is earned by the average male.

Another problem faced by poor minority women is the availability of affordable housing combined with a "decrease in public subsidies for low- and moderate-income housing and the escalating practices of excluding families with children from rental housing for low-income families." (Gordon, 1990) Gordon also notes that if there were enough low-income housing there would still be the unaddressed needs of housing in terms of it being located near enough places of employment that women with children could work full-time employment schedules and as well housing would need to be geographically located near enough places of employment so that minority women in poverty who had no transportation could either take public transportation or walk to work. Gordon states that "policies not currently on the agenda of either poverty or women's right organizations, such as unemployment compensation reform, may be central to an agenda dealing with women's poverty." (1990)