The Feminization of Poverty

• Poverty is rapidly becoming a female problem.
• Poverty rates are higher for women than men. In 2007, 13.8% of females were poor compared to 11.1% of men.
• Women are poorer than men in all racial and ethnic groups.
• 26% of all women in poverty are single with dependent children.
• Black and Latina women face particularly high rates of poverty. Over a quarter of black women and nearly a quarter of Latina women are poor. Black and Latina women are at least twice as likely as white women to be living in poverty.
• Women are about twice as likely as men (23% vs. 12%) to have received food stamps at some point in their lives.
• Minority women in particular are far more likely than their male counterparts to have used food stamps. About four-in-ten black women (39%) have gotten help compared with 21% of black men. The gender-race participation gap is also wide among Hispanics: 31% of Hispanic women but 14% of Hispanic men received assistance.

THE FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY

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Monday, March 16th, 2015

Vol XCIII, No. 311

WHY ARE MORE WOMEN LIVING IN POVERTY?

Women face a greater risk of poverty for a number of related reasons:

WHO'S POOR IN AMERICA?

• For the first time since the 1970's, women's workforce particicpation has decreased. The workplace has become hostile to women, and the real explanation is a workplace that fails women on some basic interlocking front: lack of childcare, inflexible schedule requirements, job discrimination, lack of parental leave, lack of sick leave.6
• Mothers are 79% less likely to to be hired and 100% less likely to to be promoted because they are held to a higher standard than non-mothers.6
• On-site childcare ad family leave are seen as expensive perks, and employees that take advantage are often the first to be downsized.
• Women still earned only 77 cents for every dollar that men earned in 2012, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In which case discrimination, not lack of training or education, is largely the cause of the wage gap.
• Within some minority groups, the wage gap is even worse: African-American women earn 69 cents for every dollar paid to African-American men, and Latinas earn just 58 cents on the dollar compared to Latino men. The disparity grows wider when these women are compared to non-Hispanic white men.5
• Women are segregated into low paying occupations, and occupations dominated by women are low paid. In 2007, 43% of the 29.6 million employed women in the United States were clustered in just 20 occupational categories (pink collar jobs), of which the annual median earnings were $27,383.5
• Women spend more time on unpaid caregiving. 23% of mothers are out of the workforce compared to just 1% of fathers.
• Pregnancy affects women’s work and educational opportunities more than men’s.
• Domestic and sexual violence can push women into a cycle of poverty.5

WHAT HAVE PEOPLE DONE TO HELP?

• The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill the President signed, ensures fair treatment in the workplace.
• TANF creates access to health insurance.
• Pelosi’s economic agenda for equal pay, affordable child care, and paid sick leave for women.
• He For She Campaign spearheaded by Emma Watson

WHAT IS THE FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY?

ANALYSIS OF FIGURE

Feminization of poverty describes the anomaly in which women represent substantially unequal percentages of the world's poor.1 UNIFEM describes it as “the burden of poverty borne by women.”2 This concept is not only a consequence of a lack of income, but is also the result of the deprivation of capabilities and gender biases present in both society and government. This includes the poverty of choices and opportunities, such as the ability to lead a long, healthy, and creative life, and enjoy basic rights like freedom, respect, and dignity.3 Women’s increasing share of poverty is related to the prevalence of lone mother households.1

It is more likely for a woman in America to be poor. Over half of American citizens living in poverty today are woman.4 According to the first diagram, women are poorer than men in all racial spheres. Latina and African American women carry particularly high rates of poverty. The second diagram displays that less than a quarter of all adult women with incomes below the poverty line are single mothers. More than half of all poor women are single with no dependent children and more than a quarter are single with dependent children. Poverty rates for males and females are similar throughout childhood, but trend at an increase during the “childbearing” years and are revisited in old age. The poverty gap between women and men widens between ages 18-24. This gap does begin to narrow throughout adulthood but never closes. The gap more than doubles during elderly years. This displays that women as a whole never reach the financial security that men generally have.