Sociology Index

FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY

What is Feminization of Poverty? 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.

Diana Pearce, director of the Center for Women's Welfare, coined the term “feminization of poverty” in 1978.

By feminization of poverty we mean increasing the female proportion of the population with lower incomes than men. Changes in social policy, structure of the family and workplace, social security provisions, life expectancy and other aspects of society have had the unintended result of feminization of poverty.

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

This article details the contribution of gender, race, ethnicity, marital, and parental status to the feminization of poverty. It 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 particularly White women more than Blacks and Hispanics.

The authors articulate clearly the forces that have generated rapid feminization of poverty. The analysis takes into account a range of factors that have contributed significantly to women's poverty. - Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 15, No. 4, (1994)

FEMINIST POLITICAL DISCOURSES: Radical Versus Liberal Approaches to the Feminization of Poverty and Comparable Worth - JOHANNA BRENNER, Portland State Univ 
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.

Feminization of Poverty and African-American Families: Illusions and Realities 
Donna L. Franklin - Affilia, Vol. 7, No. 2, (1992)
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. By using the case of African-American families, this article presents a comprehensive approach to addressing the poverty of single mothers that will bridge the racial and class divisions among women.

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 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. During the period 1978 to 1991 there was little net change in the percentage of the poor living in female-headed households.

Using Postmodern Feminist Theory to Deconstruct "Phallacies" of Poverty 
Kathleen E. Nuccio, Roberta G. Sands - Affilia, Vol. 7, No. 4, (1992)
This article demonstrates how postmodern feminist deconstruction can be used to uncover phallocentric biases in current theories of the feminization of poverty. Deconstructs statements from leading theorists, and questions the proposed solution to the feminization of poverty, which is marriage for women and the creation and preservation of good-paying jobs for men.

Fighting the Feminization of Poverty: Socialist-Feminist Analysis and Strategy 
Wendy Sarvasy, Judith Vanallen, Review of Radical Political Economics, Vol. 16, No. 4, (1984)
Socialist Feminism provides a necessary corrective to the strict feminization of poverty analysis by incorporating analyses of race and class differences among women. 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.

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 analyze the sex-incidence of poverty in 1959, 1969, 1979, and 1984 according to a fixed standard and another standard that changes with national per capita real income. There was much 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 actually decreased. This trend in feminization of poverty was more severe for blacks than for whites. 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.

What Does Feminization Of Poverty Mean? It Isn't Just Lack Of Income 
Fukuda-Parr S. - 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. An alternative framework of human poverty is proposed, focusing not on incomes but on human outcomes in terms of choices and opportunities that a person faces.

Work, women employment and feminization of poverty in Nigeria 
Friday Asiazobor Eboiyehi, Center for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Adeyinka Oladayo Bankole, Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan Nigeria 
O Andrew Eromonsele, Department of Sociology, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria 
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. 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'. This paper is an attempt at contributing to the on-going debate on feminization of poverty. The paper puts forward policy considerations that would facilitate the elimination of all gender colourations in the place of work that perpetuates feminization of poverty. - Gender and Behavior Vol. 4(1) 2006: 642-658 

Family Structure, Race, and the Feminization of Poverty. 
Kniesner, Thomas J. And Others. 
Abstract: For women, divorce or giving birth out of wedlock frequently accompanies entry into poverty, while marriage or remarriage often results in exit from poverty. 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. In 1984, over 50 percent of black families with children were headed by women.

The Feminization of Poverty. 
Garza, Janet K. Weir 
Abstract: After the definition of poverty and the the definition of 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 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 Racialization and Feminization of Poverty?
Rebecca J. Emigh (UCLA), Eva Fodor, and Iván Szelényi (Yale University)
ABSTRACT: Poverty is usually studied as a persistent, unchanging social problems that, hopefully, can be ameliorated through specific social policies. 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.

FEMINIZATION AND JUVENILIZATION OF POVERTY: Trends, Relative Risks, Causes, and Consequences - Suzanne M. Bianchi ­ University of Maryland
This paper reviews trends in "feminization of poverty" 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.

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)
While recent surveys do not find that poverty is feminized in post-communist Hungary, this project explores gender differences in the experience of destitution.

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 
Female children's access to resources is much more limited than the male ones owing to the cultural values and traditional roles. Policies at the macro level aggravate the female population’s disadvantaged position. In Turkey, impact of the enforced eight-year compulsory primary education legislation is a glaring example. This legislation denied female children the right of education, due to the extended graduation age from primary school. This denial was justified by the cultural, social and religious norms. Female school age children are forced to live in a narrow vicious circle. They have less chance for socialization parallel to the increased labor burden and earlier marriage ages.

Schnepf, Sylke Viola (2006) The feminization of poverty in central and eastern Europe: evidence from subjective data. University of Southampton
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. This paper shifts from household to individual data for estimating the feminisation of poverty. 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. 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 have played a significant role in the feminization of poverty.

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
This article explores the emergence of the concepts of the advantaged elder and the feminization of poverty. The implications of societal perceptions of the advantaged elder and the feminization of poverty for older women are addressed.

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. The feminization of poverty is fueled by complex cultural and material forces. To reduce and prevent the feminization of poverty, a systematic campaign that confronts concomitantly each causal force is necessary.

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: the growth of female-headed households, intra-household inequalities and bias against women and girls, and neoliberal economic policies, including structural adjustments and the post-socialist market transitions. 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. It should be recognized that the women among the poor suffer doubly from the denial of their human rights, on account of gender inequality and on account of poverty. Therefore, programs to eliminate or alleviate poverty require attention to gender inequality and women’s human rights.

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.