Gender and Poverty

        More than one billion in the world today, the great majority of whom are women, live in unacceptable conditions of poverty, mostly in the developing countries. Women represent 70 percent of the world's poor. They comprise more than 50 percent of the world's population but own only one percent of the world's wealth. Their lives are a litany of injustice, discrimination and obstacles that get in the way of achieving their basic needs of good health, safe childbirth, education, and employment. The sequence of discrimination that a woman may suffer during her entire life is unacceptable but all too common.

Low income is the major cause that places women at high risk of poverty, and lone mothers are usually at the highest risk for extreme poverty because their income is insufficient to rear children. As the number of unmarried women increases, the diverse causes affecting their poverty must be examined. Poverty is multidimensional, and therefore, economic and socio-cultural factors overlap and contribute to the establishment of poverty. It is a phenomenon with multiple root causes and manifestations.

Lack of income is a principal reason for women's risk of poverty as it deprives women of their basic needs and capabilities. As women disproportionately earn less income than men, they are deprived of basic education and health care. This deprivation passes on from one generation of women to the next, which leads to a perpetual feminization of poverty. The main reason behind this cycle of poverty is the lower earnings of women. According to a recent study, twelve of the twenty most common occupations for women, compared to eight of the twenty most common occupations for men, have median weekly earnings that will leave a household of four at or near poverty. (Staff infoZine, 2014)

Also, lack of income and resources place the lone mother households, households in which there are female headships and no male headships at the highest risk of poverty for women. There is a continuing increase of lone mother households in the world, which results in higher percentages of women in poverty. Lone mothers are the poorest women in society, and their children tend to be disadvantaged in comparison to their peers. Female headed households are most susceptible to poverty because they have fewer income earners to provide financial support within the household. According to a study in Zimbabwe, households headed by widows have an income of approximately half that of male-headed households.

It is true that lack of income is an important factor in analyzing women poverty, however, it is critical to analyze the feminization of poverty from different perspectives such as health, childbirth, education, and employment. (Branham & Olinger, 2013)

Women in poverty have reduced access to health care services and resources. Gender inequality in society prevents women from utilizing care services and therefore puts them at risk of poor health.

Women, as adolescents, may be required to have an early marriage and pregnancy at a young age puts girls at risk of maternal deaths. Also, at child-bearing age, women could die from hemorrhaging during childbirth, which is one of the most causes of maternal mortality for anemic or undernourished pregnant women. In developing countries, a girl or a woman dies every minute in giving birth.

The education of women and children, especially girls, can create greater opportunities for women to lift themselves out of poverty and increase their social position. Countries with strong gender discrimination and social hierarchies limit women's access to basic education. Even within the households, girls education is often sacrificed to allow male siblings to attend school.

Employment opportunities are limited for women worldwide. Although, there has been major growth in women's employment, the quality of the jobs still remains deeply unequal. Women do not have the same job opportunities and receive less pay for the same work. On average, they earn half of the men's earnings.

A case study on women in the United Kingdom shows that they are deprived of employment opportunities and income, which places them at the highest risk of poverty in the country. Nearly half of the employees in the study were women but these women counted for less than a third of the total weekly earnings. Although more women began to actively participate in providing for their families, over half of people in poverty were female and over forty percent of impoverished households were lone-mother households. (Davies & Joshi, 1998)

Women poverty is an issue of social concern because it has a major effect on society and on women. Where there is a high rate of poverty, there is usually a high rate of violence against women. In Bangladesh for example, women from powerful and affluent families are protected from domestic violence more than poor women are. Reports show that up to 31% of all deaths of women are caused by acts of violence. (Quinn, 2010)

In the US, poor women are prone to be addicted to drugs and alcohol. One study reported that 96.6% of the women in that study had children, of which 73.8% reported to using drugs regularly. These women reported that drug use did not create poverty in their lives, but that poverty contributed to their use of drug.

Also, a portion of poor women who have been traumatized and abused, and who have poor skills at coping might have periods in their lives where they became homeless and were forced to live in shelters.

In addition to all these problems, food insufficiency and hunger are ongoing in poor households. This stress of not being able to obtain enough food for their families jeopardized women's physical and psychological health. These women experienced deep feelings of helplessness which lead to stress, clinical depression and even physical disease.

The fact that poverty affects mostly women has its side-effects. Women poverty brings with it child poverty. Children are poor because their parents are poor. Many infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which is associated with many preventable mental and physical disabilities. Not only are these poor infants more likely to be irritable or sickly, they are also more likely to die before their first birthday. (Morris)

There is also a clear link between low income and poor health. Poverty increases reliance on health services, which in turn leads to high health care and income security costs.