FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY

Feminism, Marxist Feminism, Socialist Feminism, Gender and Women, Women's Movement, Women's Liberation Theory, Books on Gender and Women, Glass Ceiling Hypothesis

Feminization of poverty is the Increasing female proportion of the population on low incomes or in poverty. Feminization of poverty is the social process in which the incidence of poverty among women becomes much higher than among men.

Changes in social policy, the structure of the family and the workplace, social security provisions, life expectancy and other aspects of society have had the unintended result of increasing the female proportion of the population on low incomes or in poverty.

The Feminization of Poverty : Only in America? Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg, Eleanor Kremen
Feminization of Poverty Only in America: The authors show convincingly that the feminization of poverty, although most advanced in America, is an international trend. By examining the same set of factors in seven countries, they unravel the reasons why. Their special contribution is the integration of developments in each country's labor market with gender, social policy, and inequality. Lucid, careful, and systematic, the book builds a compelling explanation for the needless impoverishment experienced by millions of American women and offers a sensible, realistic agenda for its reduction. Michael B. Katz Stanley I. Sheerr Prof of History Director, Urban Studies, Univ of Pennsylvania.

Feminist explanations for the feminization of poverty. : An article from: Journal of Economic Issues Steven Pressman - Feminist explanations for the feminization of poverty. It is well known that women are much more likely to be poor than men. But the causes of this phenomenon remain a matter of dispute. In a previous paper (Pressman 2002), I examined demographic and human capital explanations for the feminization of poverty and found them both lacking in empirical support. Instead, the impact of fiscal policy on the distribution of income was found to be the main reason that women in the United States are more likely to be poor than women in other countries.

Feminist explanations for the feminization of poverty Feminization of Poverty Only in America

The Feminization of Poverty in the United States - Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Family Factors 
MARJORIE E. STARRELS, Univ of Michigan, SALLY BOULD, Univ of Delaware, LEON J. NICHOLAS, Bates College, Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 15, No. 4, (1994)
This article delineates the contribution of gender, race, ethnicity, marital, and parental status to the feminization of poverty. Its analysis of recent published and unpublished census data suggests that gender, race, and ethnicity strongly affect poverty rates. However, parenthood interacts with gender in such a way as to affect only women and to affect White women more than Blacks and Hispanics. By examining these sources of poverty separately, the authors articulate more clearly the forces that have generated rapid feminization of poverty. They also specify trends across White, Black, Puerto Rican, Mexican American, and other Hispanic populations as well as preschool and school-age children in female-householder families. The analysis takes into account a range of factors that have contributed significantly to women's poverty. It also evaluates competing arguments regarding public policies that best alleviate the problem. - jfi.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/15/4/590

FEMINIST POLITICAL DISCOURSES: 
Radical Versus Liberal Approaches to the Feminization of Poverty and Comparable Worth 
JOHANNA BRENNER, Portland State Univ 
Gender & Society, Vol. 1, No. 4, (1987) © 1987 Sociologists for Women in Society
Feminist campaigns concerning feminization of poverty and comparable worth are analyzed in terms of their major policy goals and the arguments typically used to justify those goals. The differences between liberal and radical discourses on each issue are outlined and the implications for feminist practice discussed. It is concluded that situating the issues of women's poverty and pay equity in a liberal political discourse may strengthen important ideological and social underpinnings of women's subordination. - gas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1/4/447

Feminization of Poverty and African-American Families: Illusions and Realities 
Donna L. Franklin - Affilia, Vol. 7, No. 2, (1992) © 1992 SAGE Publications
The term feminization of poverty was coined to capture the increasing rates of poverty among mother-only families. More recently, it has been used to draw attention to the failure of men to provide support for their former wives by emphasizing the enforcement of child-support legislation. The focus on this legislation has overlooked the needs of the most vulnerable families. By using the case of African-American families, this article presents a more comprehensive approach to addressing the poverty of single mothers that will bridge the racial and class divisions among women. - aff.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/2/142

A Contrast of Black and White Feminization of Poverty
Emily Northrop: Southwestern Univ, Eastern Economic Journal, 1994, vol. 20, issue 4
Abstract: The feminization of poverty was most pronounced from 1959 through 1978, and was more extreme among blacks than among whites. It resulted almost equally from a deterioration of female-headed household poverty status relative to that of the rest of the population, and from a demographic shift into female-headed households. Between 1978 and 1991 there was little net change in the percentage of the poor living in female-headed households; thus, the trend was mitigated over those years. - econpapers.repec.org

Using Postmodern Feminist Theory to Deconstruct "Phallacies" of Poverty 
Kathleen E. Nuccio, Roberta G. Sands 
Affilia, Vol. 7, No. 4, (1992) © 1992 SAGE Publications
This article demonstrates how postmodern feminist deconstruction can be used to uncover phallocentric biases in current theories of the feminization of poverty. It discusses deconstruction, critiques themes from the literature on policy, deconstructs statements from leading theorists, and questions the proposed solution to the feminization of poverty: marriage for women and the creation and preservation of good-paying jobs for men. - aff.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/4/26

Fighting the Feminization of Poverty: Socialist-Feminist Analysis and Strategy 
Wendy Sarvasy, Judith Vanallen, Review of Radical Political Economics, Vol. 16, No. 4, (1984) © 1984 Union for Radical Political Economics
Socialist feminism provides a necessary corrective to the strict feminization of poverty analysis by incorporating analyses of race and class differences among women, of internal family politics shaped by the familistic ideology, and of the contradictory role of the welfare state. We use the concept of women's dual role to analyze the interconnections among the family, the labor market and the welfare state, and to examine the ways that gender and class struggles over the costs of reproduction of labor power are expressed as conflicts over welfare policies. We suggest five criteria for evaluating policy and use them to analyze two specific issues-the six-hour day and child support. - rrp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/4/89

The Feminization of Poverty? 
VICTOR R. FUCHS, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) 
Abstract: This paper uses Census of Population and Current Population Survey data to describe and analyze the sex-incidence of poverty in 1959, 1969, 1979, and 1984 according to a fixed standard and a standard that changes with national per capita real income. The popular view that there was a large increase in the percent of adult poor who are women and that this trend has accelerated in recent years is not supported by the data. There was considerable feminization of poverty in the 1960s, but in the 1970s, the sex mix of poverty was relatively constant, and between 1979 and 1984 women's share decreased. The trend in feminization was more severe for blacks than for whites, primarily as a result of disparate trends in the 1970s. Statistical decomposition of the changes shows that an increase in the proportion of women in households without men was the principal source of feminization of poverty and the principal reason why the trend was more adverse for blacks than whites. - papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=227084

What Does Feminization Of Poverty Mean? It Isn't Just Lack Of Income 
Fukuda-Parr S. - Source: Feminist Economics, Volume 5, Number 2, 1 July 1999
This paper challenges the use of poverty incidence among female-headed households as a measure of feminization of poverty. It proposes an alternative framework of human poverty, focusing not on incomes but on human outcomes in terms of choices and opportunities that a person faces. - ingentaconnect.com

Work, women employment and feminization of poverty in Nigeria 
Friday Asiazobor Eboiyehi, Center for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria
Adeyinka Oladayo Bankole, Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan Nigeria 
O Andrew Eromonsele, Department of Sociology, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria 
Gender and Behaviour Vol. 4(1) 2006: 642-658 
Abstract: Scholars over the years have engaged in gender discourse that has often time demonstrated the continuous perpetuation of the inferiority of female gender to their male counterpart. In most of such writings, accusing fingers are pointed at men as the perpetrators and the women as the victims. Various studies have shown that while poverty affects a significant proportion of the members of the society, women have been worse hit. The continued exposure of the latter either in the traditional or modern society to deepening poverty has therefore aroused a lot of interest in the discussion of the reality of the ‘feminization of poverty'. In examining this, accusing fingers have often been pointed at men as the ones responsible for the higher incidence of poverty among the women. This paper is an attempt at contributing to the on-going debate on feminization of poverty. The paper focuses first on the assessment of the poverty profile in Nigeria. This effort is followed by the explanation of the mechanism of ensuring the perpetuation of poverty among the Nigerian women. Special attention is further directed at the formal world of work and lack of level playing ground for male and female. The paper concludes by putting forward some policy considerations that would facilitate the elimination of all gender colourations in the place of work that perpetuates feminization of poverty. - ajol.info/viewarticle.php?id=25863

Family Structure, Race, and the Feminization of Poverty. 
Authors: Kniesner, Thomas J.; And Others. 
Abstract: For women, leaving home, marriage, childbearing, and remarriage can create drastic changes in income. Divorce or giving birth out of wedlock frequently accompanies entry into poverty, while marriage or remarriage often results in exit from poverty. In the United States since 1970, the increase in the number of poor women greatly exceeded that of poor men, resulting in a trend termed the feminization of poverty. This paper provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of changes in family structure over the last 15 years and their impact, by race, on this trend. In 1984, over 50 percent of black families with children were headed by women. In white families the figure was 15 percent. The increasing number of women in poverty stems not from poverty rates within various family structures but from changes in the distribution of women among family structures. Fewer women marry as more divorce, separate, or never marry. For both races, the poverty rate of female-headed families is 350 percent higher than that of husband-wife families. In 1983 black women were twice as likely as white women to be divorced. Because of the aging of the population and a projected decline in the number of poor single mothers between now and the turn of the century, it is likely that poverty will be defeminized, at least through the year 2000. References, tables and an explanation of the method of calculation used are appended. - eric.ed.gov

The Feminization of Poverty. 
Authors: Garza, Janet K. Weir 
Abstract: After the introduction defined poverty and the feminization of poverty, this paper cited U.S. Census data that includes earnings, family status, and education attained which were posited as major factors for the economic condition of women. The first section on earnings presented female-dominated occupations, such as secretaries, teachers, waitresses, and registered nurses, that characteristically had low salaries along with the salary distributions of white and minority women. The family status of women included divorced, widowed, separated, and single female heads of households, and the U.S. Bureau of Census statistics indicated that these households were rapidly increasing in black and hispanic households. In the final section, education attained, education and ethnicity, poverty level, and unemployment data are presented. Tables and a 25-item bibliography are included. - eric.ed.gov

The Racialization and Feminization of Poverty?
Rebecca J. Emigh (UCLA), Eva Fodor, and Iván Szelényi (Yale University)
ABSTRACT: Quite understandably- and quite correctly- poverty is usually studied as a persistent, unchanging social problem that, hopefully, can be ameliorated through specific social policies. Indeed, the biblical saying that, "the poor are always with us" has withstood the test of time. The present volume, however, tackles poverty from a different angle. We ask how poverty changes during an epochal transformation, in this case, the transition from econmies based on socialist redistribution to those based on capitalist markets. We use this major transformation as an epistemological lever to provide insight into the causes and nature of poverty. In the same spirit of drawing on difference as an analytic tool, our approach is also explicitly comparative. We compare and contrast poverty- and what we argue are associated social porcess4es of racialization and feminization- in different countries during this transition. We hope that this approach not only provides sociological insight but also illuminates policy debates. During the past decade, there have been dramatic and sweeping changes in the countries of the former East European communist bloc; all have moved toward a market economy. In some places, marketization has been very rapid. At the same time, however, poverty has increased in all the countries. In this chapter, we offer some hypotheses about the relationship between poverty, markets, and ethnicity in this region and suggest how the evidence from these countries, as reported in the later chapters, addresses these hypotheses. - ccpr.ucla.edu/asp/ccpr_002_00.asp

FEMINIZATION AND JUVENILIZATION OF POVERTY: Trends, Relative Risks, Causes, and Consequences - Suzanne M. Bianchi ­ Department of Sociology, University of Maryland
Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 25: 307-333 (Volume publication date August 1999)
This paper reviews trends in "feminization" and "juvenilization" of poverty showing that the relative risks of poverty increased for women in the 1970s but decreased for working-age women in the early 1980s. Relative risks of poverty increased for children between the 1970s and 1990s particularly in comparison with the elderly. Four factors affect these trends: First, the increase in women's employment and decline in the gender wage gap enhanced the likelihood that women remained above the poverty level. Second, the decline in manufacturing employment and "family wage" jobs for men increased the likelihood that less-educated men (and their families) fell into poverty in the early 1980s. These two factors combined to halt the feminization of poverty among the working-age population. At the same time, a third trend, the increase in "nonmarriage," elevated the proportion of single parents who were young, never-married mothers and complicated the collection of child support from nonresident fathers. 
This tended to concentrate poverty in mother-child families. Finally, public transfers of income, especially Social Security, were far more effective in alleviating poverty among the elderly than among children, a factor dramatically increasing the "juvenilization" of poverty after 1970. - arjournals.annualreviews.org

A Different Type of Gender Gap: How Women and Men Experience Poverty 
Éva Fodor, Department of Gender Studies, Central European University. 
East European Politics & Societies, Vol. 20, No. 1, 14-39 (2006) © 2006 American Council of Learned Societies
While recent surveys do not find that poverty is feminized in post-communist Hungary, this project explores gender differences in the experience of destitution. Drawing on a content analysis of in-depth interviews in twentyseven very low-income households, the author exposes the particularly gendered daily practice of poverty in Hungarian families. The author argues that one of the major gender differences in the experience of poverty is that men often find themselves in a gender role crisis when they are too poor to function as successful breadwinners. Women, on the other hand, tend to feel their roles as caretakers intensified and thus avoid a conflict with (newly) hegemonic ideals of femininity. As a response, poor marriedcouple families devise ways in which they try to alleviate men's gender shame. The goal of the article is to identify four such strategies, which are used by poor couples to devise livable alternatives to hegemonic gender roles. - eep.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/1/14

Analysis Of Feminization Of Poverty Through The Denial of Access Of Female Children to School: Case Of Rural Southeast Anatolia
LEYLA SEN, HISTORY DEPARTMENT, BILKENT UNIVERSITY, TURKEY 
Congress Paper Abstract
The “child” concept in rural areas highly differs from the universally accepted definition. The ’child’ has to abandon her/his childhood very early as she/he is regarded as a valuable asset for the rural household. While this is accurate for both sexes, in the case of the female ones it is much earlier and heavier than the male ones. Because of her contribution to the indoor and outdoor activities, female children have to leave their childhood much earlier. Despite her great contribution, her access to resources is much more limited than the male ones owing to the cultural values and traditional roles. In addition to these, policies at the macro level aggravate the female population’s disadvantaged position. As a vivid example of this in Turkey, impact of the enforced eight-year compulsory primary education legislation should be noted. This legislation intensified female school age children’s access poverty since they were denied to enjoy the right of education, due to the extended graduation age from primary school. Regardless of their wellbeing, rural households responding this legislation by preventing female children’s access to education services. This denial was justified by the cultural, social and religious norms. Female school age children are forced to live in a narrow vicious circle. Without much considering the medium- and long-range impacts of this denial, these children complain from the immediate impacts. They have less chance for socialization parallel to the increased labor burden and earlier marriage ages. - pfc.org.uk/node/140

Brand, Hanita "The Feminization of Poverty: 11th Annual Conference on Womenis and Gender Studies and Feminist Theories, Tel Aviv University"
Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues - Number 6, Fall 5764/2003, pp. 245-249 Indiana University Press
Excerpt: muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/ access.cgi?uri=/journals/nashim/v006/6.1brand02.html
The Eleventh Annual Conference on Women's and Gender Studies and Feminist Theories, held in February 2003 at Tel Aviv University, had as its topic "The Feminization of Poverty." True to feminist insistence on the connection between academic research and social activism, the participants consisted of academics and activists alike, women and men from across disciplines and social strata, who gathered for three days in 28 sessions and panels to discuss, debate, and testify about poverty and women in Israel and the world over. The organizing committee, headed by Dafna Lemish, billed the conference as "a process of shared thinking that might contribute toward social change." 
As fate played its own drama, the conference coincided with the death of one of Israel's leading feminist academics and activists, Dafna Izraeli. Thus, at the last minute, the conference turned into an event dedicated to her memory—a dedication that could not have been more appropriate. As Hannah Naveh, Chair of the NCJW Women's and Gender Studies Program at Tel Aviv University, recalled from the podium, Dafna Izraeli represented a rare mix of a brilliant academic, an involved person, a generous benefactor, and a dedicated personal friend to all who knew her. 
In writing down some of the highlights of this intensive encounter, I intend not to give an account of entire panels, but rather to pull together some of the ideas and debates brought up by participants across the different disciplines and sessions. This is my way of keeping the dialogue going even after the conference is over, and, as I hope, involving more people in the burning issue of women and poverty. 
In the opening plenary session, Haya Stayer, Chair of the Department of Labor Studies at Tel Aviv University, voiced some criticisms of the conference's [End Page 245] title, "The Feminization of Poverty." 

Schnepf, Sylke Viola (2006) The feminization of poverty in central and eastern Europe: evidence from subjective data. University of Southampton, 29pp. (Submitted) - eprints.soton.ac.uk/39724/
Abstract: The transition in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) resulted in an unprecedented rise of poverty in the region. The term ‘feminisation of poverty’ suggests that women had to bear a higher share of transition costs than men. The small number of studies examining the feminisation of poverty in transition countries is based on household data assuming income pooling and equal sharing within households. However, recent research rejects this assumption of the unitary household and indicates that it even obscures gender inequalities in poverty. The value added of this paper is to shift from household to individual data for estimating the feminisation of poverty. We apply two different measures of subjective economic wellbeing for comparing the feminisation of poverty between CEE and OECD countries. Data derive from two waves (1989-1992 and 1995-1997) of the World Value Survey (WVS) and the 1999 wave of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Results show that also subjective data confirms women’s greater poverty incidence in transition countries. This gender gap in poverty is more predominant in CEE than in OECD countries. However, results of the cross-sectional data suggest that the feminisation of poverty has already been a pre-transition phenomenon.

Female headship, feminization of poverty and welfare.
Kimenyi MS, Mbaku JM. 
South Econ J. 1995 Jul;62(1):44-52.
Female-headed households are at greater risk of slipping into poverty than male-headed households. Indeed, sex and marital status of the head of household are the most important determinants of a family's poverty status in the US. Divorce, separation, death of a husband, and out-of-wedlock births can lead to female headship. Transfer payments, especially the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, are blamed for contributing to increased marital instability and out-of-wedlock births. The authors examined the role of welfare benefits in influencing female headship. Preliminary results using standard estimation procedures indicate that transfers do not significantly influence female headship. Standard estimation procedures are, however, erroneous because they ignore differences in propensities to establish mother-only households. Therefore, adjusting for differences in propensities to establish female-headed households, the level of welfare benefits is indeed an important factor in explaining the variation in the changes in the birth rates to unmarried women. The use of a weighted measure suggests that welfare benefits, by increasing female headship of women who otherwise have low propensities to be female heads, have played a significant role in the feminization of poverty. - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The paradox of the advantaged elder and the feminization of poverty. - Gonyea JG.
Boston University School of Social Work, MA 02215.
Soc Work. 1994 Jan;39(1):35-41
The construction of social definitions is important, as these definitions are ultimately translated into public policies. This article explores the emergence of the concepts of the advantaged elder and the feminization of poverty. It is a paradox that society has simultaneously embraced these two concepts when the elderly population, especially the subpopulation of those who are very old, is overwhelmingly women. The theoretical shortcomings of both concepts are examined, and a broader model of economic well-being that emphasizes the interactive nature of gender, race, and class is proposed. The implications of societal perceptions of the advantaged elder and the feminization of poverty for older women are addressed. - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The feminization of poverty: A call for primary prevention 
The Journal of Primary Prevention 
Barbara Levy Simon
School of Social Work, Columbia University, 622 W. 113 St., 10025 New York, NY 
Abstract Three-fourths of all poverty in the United States is now concentrated among women and their children. This impoverishment is growing at an alarming rate, particularly among women who are not married—those who are single parents, those who are widows or never married women over the age of 65, and those who are displaced homemakers.
The feminization of poverty is fueled by complex cultural and material forces: cultural conceptions of women as dependents of men; the sexual division of labor within families; endemic racism in private and public realms; the dichotomous labor market and welfare system; and the pervasive discrimination that women and girls still encounter in schooling, housing, and at work. To reduce and prevent the feminization of poverty, a systematic campaign that confronts concomitantly each causal force is necessary. Such a campaign is detailed herein. - springerlink.com/index/Q5L05424X33020VX.pdf

THE “FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY” AND WOMEN’S HUMAN RIGHTS
Valentine M. Moghadam, Chief, SHS/HRS/GED
Abstract: An examination of the “feminization of poverty” around the world is approached in terms of the three contributing factors that have been underscored in the women-in-development and gender-and-development (WID/GAD) literature: (1) the growth of female-headed households, (2) intra-household inequalities and bias against women and girls, and (3) neoliberal economic policies, including structural adjustments and the post-socialist market transitions. The growing visibility of women’s poverty, it is argued, is rooted in demographic trends, “cultural” patterns, and political economy. The paper finds cross-regional variation in the economic status of female-headed households, based partly on the social policy or political regime, and partly on women’s access to employment and property. Intra-household inequalities are found to exacerbate the vulnerability of women and girls; the problem may be most severe in parts of South Asia, and may also vary by social class. The paper confirms that the poverty-inducing nature of neoliberal restructuring has been especially severe on women. Although the claim that the majority of the world’s poor are women cannot be substantiated, the disadvantaged position of women is incontestable. If poverty is to be seen as a denial of human rights, it should be recognized that the women among the poor suffer doubly from the denial of their human rights – first on account of gender inequality, second on account of poverty. Therefore, programs to eliminate or alleviate poverty require attention to gender inequality and women’s human rights. - portal.unesco.org

Female Headship, Feminization of Poverty and Welfare 
Mwangi S. Kimenyi, John Mukum Mbaku - Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Jul., 1995)

Black Americans and the Feminization of Poverty: The Intervening Effects of Unemployment 
Harrell R. Rodgers, Jr. - Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Jun., 1987), pp. 402-417

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