Feminization of Poverty

THE NOTION OF the feminization of poverty indicates the growth in the number of women in poverty and the vulnerability of women to economic, social, cultural, legal, and political conditions. The factors associated with this growth vary from one region to another according to social, demographic, and economic settings. The feminization of poverty is linked to [Page 355]unequal access to and distribution of resources, a lack of control over productive resources, and limited participation in political and economic institutions. Among the most important factors are cultural norms, social perceptions, interpersonal behavior, civil strife, family structure, and public policies.

It is believed that the term feminization of poverty originated in the late 1970s in the United States during debates on the welfare system and single mothers. Critics were arguing that the welfare system in the United States not only did not free the poor from the grasp of poverty but also, in fact, increased the number of women depending on the welfare system and living in poverty. The data gathered from regions as diverse as Africa, Europe, and Asia have demonstrated that women around the globe tend to constitute the majority of people living in poverty.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also supports this claim. In its 1995 report on poverty, UNDP stated that poverty has a woman's face: of 1.3 billion people living in poverty, 70 percent are women. It is estimated that nearly 900 million women in the world have incomes of less than $1 a day.

However, there are conflicting views on the subject. Some scholars argue that, indeed, there was a substantial increase in the percentage of poor women, but it occurred in the 1960s, not in the 1970s or 1980s as is often said. Nevertheless these scholars admit that the trend in feminization was more severe for black women than for white, with the percent are of black poor who were women continuing to increase in the 1970s, albeit not as rapidly as in the 1960s.

Scholars, however, agree that the feminization of poverty among women results from a number of social and economic factors, including dramatic changes in family structure, as well as gender inequality, class division, economic restructuring, changing demographics, and shifts in government policies. Interest in poverty and gender inequality sparked a new wave of discussions of the feminization-of-poverty phenomenon in academia, among politicians, and in the media.

Moreover, the concept of the feminization of poverty not only was widely discussed by academia, politicians, and the media, but also it was a central point in the debates at international forums. Several United Nations bodies at international conferences analyzed the global situation of women and refined and incorporated the concept into documents, laws, and regulations.

The discussions center on issues concerning gender disparities and the ways of measuring gender biases in poverty, endowment, cultural norms, institutional structures, interpersonal behavior, economic restructuring, democratization, and public policies. Nevertheless, the concept of the feminization of poverty has been clouded by a number of criticisms, questioning for instance the process of women falling into poverty, or the usage of gender trends to explain women's poverty, or the classification of women based on class, age, or race.

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