Feminization of Poverty
While poverty is a terrible condition for all of those who suffer it, more often than not, poverty wears a women's face. Quite simply, women are more likely to be poor than men, almost universally, regardless of the nation in which they reside. Women make less money than men, are more likely to have the sole responsibility for caring for children, and single mothers have the dual responsibility of being the sole income support for their children. Women are more likely to have been denied adequate resources to gain an education to secure a wage as well and to work in lower pay, low-status occupations.
What is the Feminization of Poverty?
The term "feminization of poverty" was first used by sociologists in the 1970s to describe "a steep significant rise in the percent of all families in poverty headed by women between 1959 and 1979, followed by a leveling off after 1987 at approximately 50%" (Mykyta & Renwick, 2013, p. 6). Approximately 60% of all families living in poverty are headed by women, a figure that has remained constant since 1979, despite the advancements of the women's rights movement (Mykyta & Renwick, 2013, p. 6). The greater risk of poverty for women is universally true for all races and age groups: "26.5% of African-American women are poor compared to 22.3% of African-American men; 23.6% of Hispanic women are poor compared to 19.6% of Hispanic men; 10.7% of Asian women are poor compared to 9.7% of Asian men; and 11.6% of white women are poor compared to 9.4% of white men" (Cawthorne 2008). Although non-white women from historically marginalized groups suffer from poverty to a greater degree, clearly the contributing factors of female poverty impact all racial groups to some extent.
Divorce
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"In 2009, during the recession, women who divorced in the previous year were more likely to receive public assistance than men, and they reported lower household income. They were also more likely to be poor than recently divorced men" (Weiss 2011). Despite the common cultural stereotype that women receive abundant child support and alimony assistance from their former husbands, women often find themselves with the greater burden of the majority of childcare and are forced to work less to have the time to provide adequate assistance for their children. They may also have forestalled their careers to have children with their former husbands, further limiting their skills. Combined with the wage gap between men and women, divorce is often an economic catastrophe for women and female-headed households. Women may feel as if they are forced to choose between an unfulfilling marriage and economic uncertainty.
It should be noted that the fact that women earn less than males is not necessarily linked to the fact that women choose less lucrative professions, as is sometimes alleged. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, "in 2015, female full-time workers made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21%. Women, on average, earn less than men in virtually every single occupation" ("About pay inequality and discrimination," 2016). Lower incomes mean that women are less able to support themselves and their children in the eventuality of single motherhood or divorce; it also means even single women have less money to save…
