View source for Feminization of poverty

{{Short description|Poverty phenomena that most frequently affect women}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
'''Feminization of poverty''' refers to a trend of increasing [[economic inequality|inequality]] in [[living standards]] between men and women due to the widening [[gender pay gap|gender gap]] in [[poverty]]. This phenomenon largely links to how women and children are disproportionately represented within the lower socioeconomic status community in comparison to men within the same [[socioeconomic status]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Christensen|first=MacKenzie A.|title=Feminization of Poverty: Causes and Implications|date=2019|work=Gender Equality|series=Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals|pages=1–10|editor-last=Leal Filho|editor-first=Walter|place=Cham|publisher=Springer International Publishing|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_6-1|isbn=978-3-319-70060-1|editor2-last=Azul|editor2-first=Anabela Marisa|editor3-last=Brandli|editor3-first=Luciana|editor4-last=Özuyar|editor4-first=Pinar Gökcin|doi-access=free}}</ref> Causes of the feminization of poverty include the structure of family and household, employment, sexual violence, education, climate change, femonomics and health. The traditional stereotypes of women remain embedded in many cultures restricting income opportunities and community involvement for many women. Matched with a low foundation income, this can manifest to a cycle of poverty and thus an inter-generational issue.

Entrepreneurship is usually perceived as the cure-all solution for deprivation depletion. Advocates assert that it guides to job design, higher earnings, and lower deprivation prices in the towns within it happens. Others disagree that numerous entrepreneurs are generating low-capacity companies helping regional markets.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lee|first=Neil|title=Entrepreneurship and the fight against poverty in US cities|journal=Economy and Space|pages=1–22}}</ref>

This term was originated in the US, towards the end of the twentieth century<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/session/presskit/fs1.htm|title=Beijing +5 - Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st Century Twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, 5-9 June 2000|website=www.un.org|access-date=2018-11-25}}</ref> and maintains prominence as a contested international phenomenon.<ref name="Goldberg_2010" /> Some researchers describe these issues as prominent in some countries of Asia, Africa and areas of Europe. Women in these countries are typically deprived of income, employment opportunities and physical and emotional help putting them at the highest risk of poverty. This phenomenon also differs between religious groups, dependent on the focus put on gender roles and how closely their respective religious texts are followed.

Feminisation of poverty is primarily measured using three international indexes. These indexes are the Gender-related Developmental Index, Gender Empowerment Measure and the Human Poverty Index. These indexes focus on issues other than monetary or financial issues. These indexes focus on gender inequalities, [[standard of living]] and highlight the difference between human poverty and income poverty.

==History==
The concept of the 'feminization of poverty' dates back to the 1970s and became popular in the 1990s through some [[United Nations]] documents.<ref>United Nations. (1996). Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly on the report of the Second Committee (A/50/617/Add.6) – Women in development. 9 February 1996, Fiftieth session, Agenda item 95 (f), General Assembly A/RES/50/104. New York: United Nations</ref><ref>United Nations. (2000). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on the report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the Twenty-third Special Session of the General Assembly (A/S-23/10/Rev.1) – Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. A/RES/S-23/3, 16 November 2000, Twenty-third special session, Agenda item 10, 00-65205. New York: United Nations</ref> It became a prominent in popular society after a study focusing on gender patterns in the evolution of poverty rates in the United States was released.

The feminization of poverty is a relative concept based on a women-men comparison. For instance, feminisation of poverty is if poverty in a society is distinctly reduced among men and is only slightly reduced among women.<ref name="Medeiros_2008">{{cite journal|vauthors=Medeiros M, Costa J|year=2008|title=Is There a Feminization of Poverty in Latin America?|journal=World Development|volume=36|issue=115–127|pages=115–127|doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.02.011}}</ref> {{Examples?|date=February 2022}}

== Definitions ==
Feminization of poverty is a contested idea with a multitude of meanings and layers. Marcielo M. and Joana C. define feminization of poverty in two parts: feminization, and poverty. Feminization designates gendered change; something becoming more feminine, by extension more familiar or severe among women or female-headed households. Poverty is a deficit of resources or abilities.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What Do We Mean by “Feminization of Poverty”? |url=https://ipcig.org/sites/default/files/pub/en/IPCOnePager58.pdf?page=cf956be5dc |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.ph/UUf9G |archive-date=2 July 2022 |access-date=2022-07-02 |website=International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) |language=en}}</ref> Marcielo M. and Joana C. (2008) likewise depicts the escalating role that gender discrimination has in determining poverty. For instance, an increase of [[wage discrimination]] {{citation needed|date=February 2022}} between males and females which can also exacerbates poverty among women and men of all types of families. Medieros connsiders this possibility as a feminization of poverty because it denotes the relation between the biases against women and a rise in poverty. In numerous cases, Medieros claims that such alleged changes in the causes of poverty will result in one of the types of the feminization of poverty, that is, the relative changes in the poverty levels of women and female-headed households.<ref name="Medeiros_2008" />

The concept also served to illustrate the many social and economic factors contributing to women's poverty, including the significant [[gender pay gap]] between women and men.<ref name="CAUSE_2002">{{cite web|url=http://www.femst.ucsb.edu/projects/crwsj/collaborative/execsummaryweb.pdf|title=Challenging the Feminization of Poverty: Women in Poverty in the Central Coast Region of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.|date=8 March 2002|work=A Report by the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) Women's Economic Justice Project}}</ref> {{dubious|reason=bias?|date=February 2022}}

The term originates in the US and its prominence as international phenomenon is contested.<ref name="Goldberg_2010">{{cite book|title=Poor women in rich countries: the feminization of poverty over the life course|last1=Goldberg|first1=Gertrude Schaffner|date=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-531430-4|location=Oxford|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314304.001.0001|name-list-style=vanc}}</ref> The proportion of female-headed households whose incomes fall below the "poverty line" has been broadly adopted as a measure of women's poverty.<ref name="Fukuda-Parr_1999">{{cite journal|last=Fukuda-Parr|first=Sakiko|author-link=Sakiko Fukuda-Parr|date=January 1999|title=What does feminization of poverty mean? It isn't just lack of income|journal=[[Feminist Economics (journal)|Feminist Economics]]|volume=5|issue=2|pages=99–103|doi=10.1080/135457099337996|name-list-style=vanc}}{{Paywall}}</ref> [Feminist sources]In many countries, household consumption and expenditure surveys show a high incidence of female-headed households among the "poor," defined as those whose incomes fall below the poverty line.<ref name="Fukuda-Parr_1999" />

There are two assumptions underlying income-based measures of poverty according to Bessell S (2010).<ref name="Bessell_2010">{{cite book | vauthors = Bessell S | year = 2010 | chapter = Chapter 7: Methodologies for gender-sensitive and pro-poor poverty measures. | title = The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty: Concepts, Research, Policy | veditors = Chant S | volume = 26 | pages = 59–64 | location = Cheltenham, UK | publisher = Edward Elgar }}</ref> First, there is that tendency to equate income with the ability to control income.<ref name = "Bessell_2010" /> While women may control earned income, the limits on poor women's financial sovereignty have been well demonstrated. [detail sources] An income-based measure may hide the extent and nature of poverty when women earn an income but have no control over those earnings, claims Bessel.<ref name = "Bessell_2010" /> While the question of who controls income is a delicate matter for women, it is also relevant to the position and well-being of men.<ref name = "Bessell_2010" /> Societies that place upon individuals a heavy communal, kinship or clan-based obligation may end in both women and men having limited control over individual income.

Second, is the assumption that income creates equal access and generates equal benefits.<ref name = "Bessell_2010" /> Access to education illustrates the point. While lack of financial resources may result in low enrollment or high drop-out rates among poor children, social values around the role of women and the importance of formal education for girls are likely to be more meaningful in demonstrating the difference between male and female enrolment rates. Bessel claims.<ref name = "Bessell_2010" />

==Causes==

Factors that place women at high risk of poverty include change of family structure, gender wage gaps {{dubious|reason=Sources? Gender wage discrimination has been illegal for several decades in the West|date=February 2022}} , women's prevalence in low-paid occupations[{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}}], a lack of work-family supports {{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} , and the challenges involved in accessing public benefits {{clarify|date=February 2022}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/poverty|title=Poverty – IWPR|website=www.iwpr.org|access-date=2017-01-30}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite journal|last1=Heath|first1=Julia A.|last2=Kiker|first2=B. F.|year=1992|title=Determinants of Spells of Poverty Following Divorce|journal=Review of Social Economy|volume=50|issue=3|pages=305–315|doi=10.1080/758537075}}</ref> Feminisation of poverty is a problem which may be most severe in parts of South Asia, and may also differ by social class.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Moghadam|first=Valentine M. | name-list-style = vanc |date=July 2005|title=THE 'FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY' AND WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS|url=http://www.cpahq.org/cpahq/cpadocs/Feminization_of_Poverty.pdf|journal=SHS Papers in Women's Studies/ Gender Research|pages=39}}</ref> Although low income is the major cause, there are many interrelated facets of this problem. Lone mothers are usually at the highest risk for extreme poverty [source?] because their income is insufficient to rear children. The image of a "traditional" woman and a traditional role still influences many cultures in today's world and is still not in full realization that women are essential part of the economy. In addition, income poverty lowers their children's possibilities for good education and nourishment {{dubious|reason=gender-neutral?|date=February 2022}}. Low income is a consequence of the social bias women face in trying to obtain [[informal sector|formal employment]], which in turn deepens the [[cycle of poverty]]. Beyond income, poverty manifests in other dimensions such as time poverty {{dubious|reason=define - a female-only concept?|date=February 2022}} and capability deprivations.<ref name="ARS">{{cite journal | last = Bianchi | first = Suzanne M. | name-list-style = vanc | author-link = Suzanne M. Bianchi | title = Feminization and juvenilization of poverty: trends, relative risks, causes, and consequences | journal = [[Annual Review of Sociology]] | volume = 25 | issue = 1 | pages = 307–333 | doi = 10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.307 | date = August 1999 }}</ref> Poverty is multidimensional, and therefore economic, demographic, and socio-cultural factors all overlap and contribute to the establishment of poverty.<ref name="Morocco">{{cite journal | last = Skalli | first = Loubna H. | s2cid = 145116618 | name-list-style = vanc | title = Women and poverty in Morocco: the many faces of social exclusion | journal = [[Feminist Review]] | date = November 2001 | volume = 69 | issue = 1 | pages = 73–89 |doi = 10.1080/014177800110070120 }}{{Paywall}}</ref> It is a phenomenon with multiple root causes and manifestations.<ref name="Morocco"/> {{dubious|reason=Feminist source|date=February 2022}}

===Single mother households===
[[File:Mothers grow together in northern Kenya (6220171802).jpg|thumb|Mothers often experience poverty more extremely because they have more demands on time, energy and resources. This woman farmer in Northern Kenya is part of a mother support group that creates peer support across 13 mothers, to learn about parenting and economic practices.]]
[[Single mother household]]s are critical in addressing feminization of poverty and can be broadly defined as households in which there are female headships and no male headships. Single mother households are at the highest risk of [[poverty]] for women due to lack of [[income]] and resources.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/00220380701611477 |title=Poverty and productivity in female-headed households in Zimbabwe |year=2007 |last1=Horrell |first1=Sara |last2=Krishnan |first2=Pramila |s2cid=54652680 | name-list-style = vanc |journal=Journal of Development Studies |volume=43 |issue=8 |pages=1351–80|url=http://econpapers.repec.org/article/tafjdevst/v_3a43_3ay_3a2007_3ai_3a8_3ap_3a1351-1380.htm}}{{Paywall}}</ref> There is a continuing increase of single mother households in the world, which results in higher percentages of women in poverty.<ref name="Sylvia2006">{{cite journal|last=Chant|first=Sylvia|date=July 2006|title=Re‐thinking the "Feminization of Poverty" in relation to aggregate gender indices|url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/2869/1/Re-thinking_the_feminisation_of_poverty_%28LSERO%29.pdf|journal=Journal of Human Development and Capabilities|volume=7|issue=2|pages=201–220|doi=10.1080/14649880600768538|s2cid=3158321|name-list-style=vanc}}{{Paywall}}</ref> Single mothers are the poorest women in society, and their children tend to be disadvantaged in comparison to their peers.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/s10834-010-9198-z |title=Labor Force Participation, Regional Location, and Economic Well-Being of Single Mothers in Russia |year=2010 |last1=Kanji |first1=Shireen |s2cid=153394273 | name-list-style = vanc |journal=Journal of Family and Economic Issues |volume=32 |pages=62–72 |url=http://econpapers.repec.org/article/kapjfamec/v_3a32_3ay_3a2011_3ai_3a1_3ap_3a62-72.htm}}</ref> Different factors can be taken into account for the rise in the number of female headship in households. While never-married heads of household are also at economic risk, changes of family structure, particularly [[divorce]], are the major cause of initial spells of poverty among female-headed households.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>{{Cite journal|title=Getting into Poverty Without a Husband, and Getting Out, With or Without|journal=American Economic Association|last1=Kniesner|first1=Thomas J.|volume=78|last2=McElroy|first2=Marjorie B.|year=1988|issue=2|pages=86–90|jstor=1818103}}</ref> When men become [[migrant workers]] {{dubious|reason=assumption - source?|date=February 2022}}, women are left to be the main caretaker of their homes. Those women who have the opportunity to work usually don't get better jobs with a furthered education [source?]. They are left with jobs that don't offer financial sustainability or benefits.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hildebrandt|first1=Eugenie |s2cid=13587674 | name-list-style = vanc |title=Understanding the Lives and Challenged of Women in Poverty after TANF|journal=Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice|volume=17 |issue=3 |date=2016|pages=156–169 |doi=10.1177/1527154416672204 |pmid=27753630}}</ref> Other factors such as illnesses and deaths of husbands lead to an increase in single mother households in [[developing countries]].<ref name="BrennerJohanna">{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/089124387001004007 |jstor=189637 |title=Feminist Political Discourses: Radical Versus Liberal Approaches to the Feminization of Poverty and Comparable Worth |year=1987 | vauthors = Brenner J |s2cid=143729580 |journal=Gender & Society |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=447–65}}</ref>

Female headed households are most susceptible to poverty because they have fewer income earners to provide financial support within the household.<ref name="BrennerJohanna" /> According to a case study in Zimbabwe, households headed by widows have an income of approximately half that of male-headed households, and [[de facto]] female headed households have about three-quarters of the income of male headed households.<ref name="BrennerJohanna" /> Additionally, single mother households lack critical resources in life, which worsens their state of poverty.<ref name="Fukuda-Parr_1999" /> They do not have access to the opportunities to attain a decent standard of living along with basic needs such as health and education.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1300/J013v17n01_02 |title=Double Victims: Poor Women and AIDS |year=1991 |last1=Shayne |first1=Vivian |last2=Kaplan |first2=Barbara | name-list-style = vanc |journal=Women & Health |volume=17 |pages=21–37 |issue=1 |pmid=2048320}}</ref> Single mother households relate to [[gender inequality]] issues as women are more susceptible to poverty and lack essential life needs in comparison to men.<ref>''[https://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/chapter8/chapter8.html The World's Women 2015]'', Poverty, 2015</ref>

Parenting in poverty ridden conditions can cause emotional instability for a child and their relationship with a single mother.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = La Placa V, Corlyon J | year = 2016 | title = Unpacking the Relationship between Parenting and Poverty: Theory, Evidence and Policy | url = http://gala.gre.ac.uk/13159/8/13159%20LA_PLACA_Parenting_and_Poverty_%28Final_Draft%29_2015.pdf| journal = Social Policy and Society | volume = 15 | issue = 1| pages = 11–28 | doi = 10.1017/S1474746415000111 | s2cid = 145369087 }}</ref>

Many factors contribute to becoming impoverished. Some of these factors are more prevalent in the lives of single mothers. When demographic attributes of single mothers are surveyed, a few factors showed up in higher rates. Marital status (divorced or widowed), education, and race correlated strongly with levels of poverty for single mothers.<ref name="Brown, J. B. 2004">{{cite journal | vauthors = Brown JB, Lichter DT |year=2004 |title=Poverty, Welfare, and the Livelihood Strategies of Nonmetropolitan Single Mothers |journal=Rural Sociology |volume=69 |issue=2 |pages=282–301 |doi=10.1526/003601104323087615 |citeseerx=10.1.1.502.578 }}</ref> Specifically, very few mothers on the poverty line had a college degree and were having to "work to make ends meet".<ref name="Brown, J. B. 2004"/> Not only do these demographic attributes affect parenting in poverty, emotional attributes provided an instability as well when viewed by Dr. Bloom. Mothers have been noted as the "caregivers" or "nurturer" of families. Some stereotypical things that are expected of mothers are harder to provide in a low-income household when a mother is the main provider. Dr. Bloom's example of a stereotypical mother job was bringing treats to school on birthdays and expected to go to parent teacher conferences.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bloom LR |year=2001 |title='I'm poor, I'm single, I'm a mom, and I deserve respect': Advocating in Schools As and With Mothers in Poverty |journal=Educational Studies |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=300–316 }}</ref> A researcher, Denise Zabkiewicz, surveyed single mothers in poverty and measured rates of depression over time. Since recent studies in 2010 had brought the idea that work was beneficial for mental health, Zabkiewicz thought to research if jobs were mentally beneficial to poverty line single mothers. Those results concluded to be true; mothers' rates of depression were significantly lower when one held a stable, long-term job.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zabkiewicz D |s2cid=27214249 |year=2010 |title=The mental health benefits of work: do they apply to poor single mothers? |journal=Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=77–87 |doi=10.1007/s00127-009-0044-2 |pmid=19367350 }}</ref> The likelihood of getting a full-time job decreases with certain factors. When these certain factors were surveyed in single moms they occurred at higher rates: co-inhabiting, college degree, and use of welfare.<ref name="Brown, J. B. 2004"/> All of these factors are ones that the researchers, Brian Brown and Daniel Lichter, identified as contributing to single mothers' poverty.

===Employment===
[[File:Nezaposljiva maternica.jpg|thumb|"Unemployable uterus", a graffito in Ljubljana, Slovenia]]
Employment opportunities are limited for women worldwide {{dubious|reason=as opposed to men? extraordinary evidence demanded of such a claim|date=February 2022}}.<ref>{{citation | last = Chen | first = Martha | name-list-style = vanc | author-link = Martha Chen | contribution = A matter of survival: women's right to employment in India and Bangladesh | editor-last1 = Nussbaum | editor-first1 = Martha | editor-last2 = Glover |editor-first2=Jonathan | editor-link1 = Martha Nussbaum | editor-link2 = Jonathan Glover | title = Women, culture, and development: a study of human capabilities | pages = 37–61 | publisher = Clarendon Press Oxford University Press | location = Oxford New York | year = 1995 | isbn = 978-0-19-828964-7 |doi=10.1093/0198289642.003.0002 | postscript = .}}</ref> The ability to materially control one's environment by gaining equal access to work that is humanizing and allows for meaningful relationships with other workers is an essential capability.<ref>{{citation | last = Nussbaum | first = Martha C. | author-link = Martha Nussbaum | contribution = The central capabilities | editor-last = Nussbaum | editor-first = Martha C. | name-list-style = vanc | editor-link = Martha Nussbaum |title=Creating capabilities: the human development approach | pages = 17–45 |publisher=The Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]] | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | year = 2011 | isbn = 978-0-674-05054-9 | postscript = .}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=Gg7Q2V8fi8gC&pg=PA17 Preview.]</ref> Employment impacts go beyond financial independence. Employment establishes higher security and real world experience which elevates regard within families settings and increases bargaining positions for women. Though there has been major growth in women's employment, the quality of the jobs still remains deeply unequal.<ref name="UNICEF"/> {{Where?|date=February 2022}} Teenage motherhood is a factor that corresponds to poverty.

There are two kinds of employment: formal and informal. Formal employment is government regulated and workers are insured a wage and certain rights. Informal employment takes place in small, unregistered enterprises. It is generally a large source of employment for women.<ref name="UNICEF"/> The burden of informal care work falls predominantly on women, who work longer and harder in this role than men. This affects their ability to hold other jobs and change positions, the hours they can work, and their decision to give up work. However, women who have University degrees or other forms of higher learning tend to stay in their jobs even with caring responsibilities, which suggests that the human capital from this experience causes women to feel opportunity costs when they lose their employment.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Carmichael | first1 = Fiona | last2 = Hulme | first2 = Claire | last3 = Sheppard | first3 = Sally | last4 = Connell | first4 = Gemma | s2cid = 70765098 | name-list-style = vanc |title=Work-life imbalance: informal care and paid employment in the UK | journal = [[Feminist Economics (journal)|Feminist Economics]] | date = April 2008 | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | pages = 3–35 | doi = 10.1080/13545700701881005 | url = http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/3534/1/Charmichael_Fem_Econ_preprint.pdf }}</ref> Having children has also historically affected women's choice to stay employed. While this "child-effect" has significantly decreased since the 1970s, women's employment is currently decreasing {{dubious|reason=This contradicts the evidence|date=February 2022}}. This has less to do with child-rearing and more with a poor job market for all women {{dubious|reason=All women?|date=February 2022}}, mothers and non-mothers alike.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Boushey | first = Heather | s2cid = 154304248 | name-list-style = vanc | author-link = Heather Boushey | title = "Opting out?" The effect of children on women's employment in the United States | journal = [[Feminist Economics (journal)|Feminist Economics]] | volume = 14 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–36 | doi = 10.1080/13545700701716672 |date= January 2008 }}</ref> {{dubious|reason=Feminist source|date=February 2022}}

===Sexual violence===
A form of sexual violence on the rise in the United States is [[Human trafficking in the United States|human trafficking]].<ref name="Tumiel_2018">{{cite thesis | vauthors = Tumiel K | year = 2018 | title = America's modern day slavery: Public perceptions of human trafficking | publisher = Alliant International University | location = San Francisco }}</ref> Poverty can lead to increased trafficking due to more people on the streets.<ref>{{cite book | editor-first1 = Sally | editor-last1 = Cameron | editor-first2 = Edward | editor-last2 = Newman | name-list-style = vanc | year = 2008 | title = Trafficking in Humans: Social, Cultural and Political Dimensions. | url = https://archive.org/details/traffickinghuman00came | url-access = limited | location = New York | publisher = United Nations University Press | pages = [https://archive.org/details/traffickinghuman00came/page/n35 22]–25 | isbn = 9789280811469 }}</ref> Women who are impoverished, foreign, socially deprived, or at other disadvantages are more susceptible to being recruited into trafficking.<ref name="Tumiel_2018"/> Many laws stated in Kelsey Tumiel's dissertation, have recently been made to try to combat the phenomenon, but it is predicted that human trafficking will surpass illegal drug trafficking amounts in the US.<ref name="Tumiel_2018"/> Women that are victims of these sexual violence acts have a difficult time escaping the life due to abuse of power, organised crime, and insufficient laws to protect them.<ref name="Alagbala_2014">{{cite thesis | vauthors = Alagbala LA | year = 2014 | title = Power, law, and culture: Service providers' perspectives of the contributing factors to the perpetuation of the human sex trafficking industry within the United States | publisher = Dissertation Abstracts International }}</ref> There are more people current enslaved in trafficking than there were during the African slave trade.<ref name="Alagbala_2014"/> "Branding" of human trafficking brings awareness to the issue claims Tam Mai, the author. This allows for public assertion and intervention. A claim made in Tam Mai's article states that reducing poverty may thus lead to a decrease in trafficking from the streets.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Mai T | title = Human trafficking as a brand within the framework of human rights: Case studies in the United States| date = 2017 | isbn = 978-1-68053-025-4 | publisher = Acaemica Press | location = Washington, DC }}</ref>{{undue weight inline|reason=relevance to poverty?|date=February 2022}}

===Education===
{{Globalize section|date=February 2022}}
Women and girls have limited access to basic education in developing countries.'''<ref name="VaughanRosie" />''' This is due to strong gender discrimination and social hierarchies in these countries. However, this trend is reversed in the Western world. '''<ref name="VaughanRosie" />''' Approximately one quarter of girls in the developing world do not attend school.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.peacecorps.gov/educators/resources/global-issues-gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment/|title=Global Issues: Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment|website=www.peacecorps.gov|access-date=2018-11-28}}</ref> This impedes a woman's ability to make informed choices and achieve goals. Enabling female education leads to the reduction of household poverty.<ref name="VaughanRosie">{{cite journal|last1=Vaughan|first1=Rosie Peppin|s2cid=85512492|year=2010|title=Girls' and women's education within Unesco and the World Bank, 1945–2000|url=http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ891592&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ891592|journal=Compare|volume=40|issue=4|pages=405–23|doi=10.1080/03057925.2010.490360|name-list-style=vanc}}</ref> Higher education is a major key to reducing women's poverty.<ref name="Tiamiyu_2001" />

The limited number of girls who are enrolled in education in developing countries have a higher drop out rate than boys.<ref name="un.org">Kuwonu, F. (2015, April). Millions of girls remain out of school | Africa Renewal Online. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2015/millions-girls-remain-out-school</ref> This is caused by the high rape and sexual assault rates, which can lead to an unwanted pregnancy,<ref name="un.org"/> and male prioritisation of education.  Males will be receiving an education while females are learning domestic skills, including cleaning, cooking and looking after children.<ref>Victor Ombati, & Ombati Mokua. (2012). Gender Inequality in Education in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Women’s Entrepreneurship and Education, (3,4).</ref> There are extremely high levels of claims of professional misconduct, usually in the terms of sexual favours by females for grades. Because of sexual harassment by students and lecturers, there is a large inequality of higher education for females.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morley|first=Louise|s2cid=145806419|date=March 2011|title=Sex, grades and power in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania.|journal=Cambridge Journal of Education|volume= 41|pages=101–115|doi=10.1080/0305764X.2010.549453}}</ref> {{Where?|date=February 2022}}

===Climate change ===
{{Undue weight section|one source|date=February 2022}}
According to MacGregor, women are more likely to be poor , and to be responsible for the care of poor children, than men.<ref name="Macgregor_2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Macgregor S | s2cid = 141663550 | year = 2009 | title = A Stranger Silence Still: The Need for Feminist Social Research on Climate Change. | journal = The Sociological Review | volume = 57 | issue = supplement 2 | pages = 124–140 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-954x.2010.01889.x }}</ref> According to MacGregor, approximately 70 percent of the world's poor are women {{dubious|reason=racist claim, poverty-denial. Moderators?|date=February 2022}}; rural women developing countries are among the most disadvantaged groups on the planet {{dubious|reason=source other than 'MacGregor'?|date=February 2022}}.<ref name="Macgregor_2009" /> They are therefore unlikely to have the necessary resources to cope with the changes brought by climate change, and very likely to suffer a worsening of their everyday conditions, says MacGregor. MacGregor also says that poor women are more likely to be hurt or killed by natural disasters and extreme weather events than men.<ref name="Macgregor_2009" /> MacGregor also claims that there is evidence to suggest that when households experience food shortages, women tend to go without so that their children may eat, with all the health implications this brings for them.<ref name="Macgregor_2009" /> Since [[poverty and climate change]] are closely linked {{according to whom?|date=February 2022}}, the poorest and most disadvantaged groups often depend on climate-sensitive livelihoods like agriculture, which makes them disproportionately [[Climate change vulnerability|vulnerable to climate change]].<ref name="Habtezion_2011">{{cite book | vauthors = Habtezion S | year = 2011 | title = Overview of linkages between gender and climate change | veditors = Stern J | url = http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/gender/Gender%20and%20Environment/PB1-AP-Overview-Gender-and-climate-change.pdf | publisher = United Nations Development Programme | location = New York }}</ref> These groups lack the resources required to weather severe climatic effects like better houses and drought-resistant crops.<ref name="Habtezion_2011" /> This diminished adaptive capacity makes them even more vulnerable, pushing them to take part in unsustainable environmental practices such as deforestation in order to maintain their well-being.<ref name="Habtezion_2011" /> The extent to which people are impacted by climate change is partially a function of their social status, power, poverty, and access to and control over resources.<ref name="Habtezion_2011" /> Women are more vulnerable to the influences of climate change since they make up the bulk of the world's poor  and are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change [more dependent than men on natural resources??]. Limited mobility combined with unequal access to resources and to decision-making processes places women in rural areas in a position where they are disproportionately affected by climate change.<ref name="Habtezion_2011" /> There are three main arguments in association to women and climate change.<ref name="Arora-Jonsson_2011">{{cite journal | vauthors = Arora-Jonsson S | year = 2011 | title = Virtue and vulnerability: Discourses on women, gender and climate change. | journal = Global Environmental Change | volume = 21 | issue = 2 | pages = 744–751 | doi = 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.01.005 }}</ref> Firstly, that women need special attention because they are the poorest of the poor; secondly, because they have a higher mortality rate during natural disasters caused by climate change and thirdly because women are more environmentally conscious.<ref name="Arora-Jonsson_2011" />{{dubious|reason=other source?|date=February 2022}} While the first two refer mainly to the women in the South, the last is especially apparent in the literature on gender and climate change in the North.<ref name="Arora-Jonsson_2011" /> The feminization of poverty has been used to illustrate differences between male and female poverty in a given context as well as changes in male and female poverty over time. Typically, this approach has fed the perception that female-headed households, however, defined, tend to be poorer than other households.<ref name="Arora-Jonsson_2011" /> Women are clearly more disadvantaged than men {{dubious|reason=Racist and bizzare claim again|date=February 2022}} by poor household infrastructure or the lack of piped water and less-consuming energy sources, according to Gammage. {{dubious|reason=source is for Guatemala only|date=February 2022}} <ref name="Gammage_2010">{{cite book | vauthors = Gammage S | year = 2010 | chapter = Chapter 9: Gender, time poverty and Amartya Sen's capability approach: Evidence from Guatemala. | title = The International Handbook of Gender and Poverty: Concepts, Research, Policy | veditors = Chant S | volume = 26 | pages = 71–76 | location = Cheltenham, UK | publisher = Edward Elgar }}</ref>

===Femonomics===

In addition to earning less {{dubious|reason=generalisation, specifically who and where?|date=February 2022}}, women may encounter "Femonomics",<ref>{{cite web | last = Wolfsohn | first = Reeta | name-list-style = vanc | title = Who is poor in this country and why (webinar recording) | url = https://www.financialsocialwork.com/blog/webinar-recording-who-is-poor-in-this-country-and-why | date = 13 March 2013 | access-date = 20 August 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160917002439/https://www.financialsocialwork.com/blog/webinar-recording-who-is-poor-in-this-country-and-why | archive-date = 17 September 2016 | url-status = dead }}</ref> or gender of money, a term created by Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW,<ref>{{cite web | title = Profile: Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW | url = https://www.financialsocialwork.com/about/reeta-wolfsohn-cmsw | access-date = 20 August 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160917001705/https://www.financialsocialwork.com/about/reeta-wolfsohn-cmsw | archive-date = 17 September 2016 | url-status = dead }}</ref> to reflect many of the inequities women face that increase their likelihood [how?] of suffering from financial difficulties.<ref name=Brewster>{{Cite journal | last = Brewster | first = Victoria | name-list-style = vanc | title = Interview with Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW: Center for Financial Social Work | journal = Social Justice Solutions | date = 15 November 2013 | url = http://www.socialjusticesolutions.org/2013/11/15/interview-reeta-wolfsohn-cmsw-center-financial-social-work-founder/ }}</ref><ref name=Financial_Therapy>{{Cite journal | title = Practitioner profile: An interview with Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW | journal = Journal of Financial Therapy | volume = 5 | issue = 1 | pages = 87–91 | doi = 10.4148/1944-9771.1079 | date = 2014 | last1 = Wolfsohn | first1 = Reeta | name-list-style = vanc | doi-access = free }} [http://newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1079&context=jft Pdf.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420163740/http://newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1079&context=jft |date=20 April 2016 }}</ref> The image of a "traditional" woman and a traditional role still influences many cultures in today's world and is still not in full realisation that women are essential part of the economy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Makka|first=Serah | name-list-style = vanc |date=2004|title=The 'Feminization of Poverty' in Developing Countries and the Role of Microfinance in Poverty Reduction|url=https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1088&context=ojii_volumes|volume= IV }}</ref> Women have unique healthcare problems/access problems related to reproduction increasing both their healthcare costs and risks.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Salganicoff | first = Alina | name-list-style = vanc | title = Women and medicare: An unfinished agenda | journal = Journal of the American Society of Aging | date = 4 June 2015 | url = http://www.asaging.org/blog/women-and-medicare-unfinished-agenda }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last = Lee | first = Nancy C. | name-list-style = vanc | title = The affordable care act: speaking to women's unique health needs | publisher = [[United States Department of Health and Human Services|U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)]] | date = 7 August 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Shartzer | first1 = Adele | last2 = Long | first2 = Sharon K. | last3 = Benatar | first3 = Sarah | name-list-style = vanc | title = Health care costs are a barrier to care for many women | journal = Health Reform Monitoring Service (HRMS) | date = 7 January 2015 | url = http://hrms.urban.org/briefs/health-care-costs-are-a-barrier-to-care-for-many-women.html | access-date = 20 August 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150921144725/http://hrms.urban.org/briefs/Health-Care-Costs-Are-a-Barrier-to-Care-for-Many-Women.html | archive-date = 21 September 2015 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Research also shows that females tend to live five years longer on average than men.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kochanek | first1 = Kenneth D. | last2 = Murphy | first2 = Sherry L. | last3 = Xu | first3 = Jiaquan | last4 = Arias | first4 = Elizabeth | name-list-style = vanc | title = Mortality in the United States, 2013 | journal = NCHS Data Brief | id = 178 | date = December 2014 | issue = 178 | pages = 1–8 | pmid = 25549183 | url = https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/26483 }}</ref> The death of a spouse is an important determinant of female old-age poverty, as it leaves women in charge of the finances. However, women are more likely to be financially illiterate and thus have a harder time knowing how to manage their money.<ref name="Bucher2014">{{cite journal | last1 = Bucher-Koenen | first1 = Tabea | last2 = Lusardi | first2 = Annamaria | last3 = Alessie | first3 = Rob | last4 = van Rooij | first4 = Maarten | author-link2 = Annamaria Lusardi | name-list-style = vanc |title=How Financially Literate Are Women? An Overview and New Insights |journal=Journal of Consumer Affairs |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=255–283 |doi=10.1111/joca.12121 | year = 2017 | url = http://mea.mpisoc.mpg.de/uploads/user_mea_discussionpapers/1566_19-2014.pdf }}</ref>

In 2009 Gornick ''et al.'' found that older women (over 60) were typically much wealthier than their national average in Germany, US, UK, Sweden and Italy (data from 1999 to 2001).  In the US their wealth holdings were four times the national median.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2009|authors=Gornick, Janet C., Teresa Munzi, Eva Sierminska and Timothy Smeeding|s2cid=154511073|title=Income, Assets, and Poverty: Older Women in Comparative Perspective|journal= Journal of Women, Politics & Policy|volume=30|issue=2|pages=272–300|doi=10.1080/15544770902901791}}</ref>

===Health===
{{See also|Social determinants of health|Gender disparities in health}}

Women in poverty have reduced access to health care services and resources {{dubious|reason=Relative to men?|date=February 2022}}.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Bern-Klug | first1 = Mercedes | last2 = Barnes | first2 = Nancy D. | name-list-style = vanc | title = Income characteristics of rural older women and implications for health status | journal = [[Journal of Women & Aging]] | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = 27–37 | doi = 10.1300/J074v11n01_03 | pmid = 10323044 | date = January 1999 }}{{Paywall}}</ref> Being able to have good health, including reproductive health, be adequately nourished, and have proper shelter can make an enormous difference to their lives.<ref name="Nussbaum_2004">{{cite book | vauthors = Nussbaum M | year = 2004 | chapter = Promoting Women's Capabilities | veditors = Benaria L, Bisnath S | title = Global Tensions: Challenges and Opportunities in the World Economy | pages = 241–256 | publisher = Routledge }}</ref> Gender inequality in society prevents women from utilizing care services and therefore puts women at risk of poor health, nutrition, and severe diseases. Women in poverty are also more vulnerable to sexual violence and risk of [[HIV]]/[[AIDS]], as they are less able to defend themselves from influential people who might sexually abuse them. HIV transmission adds to the stigma and social risk for women and girls.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Panchanadeswaran |first1=Subadra |last2=Johnson |first2=Sethulakshmi C. |last3=Go |first3=Vivian F. |last4=Srikrishnan |first4=A. K. |last5=Sivaram |first5=Sudha |last6=Solomon |first6=Suniti |last7=Bentley |first7=Margaret E. |last8=Celentano |first8=David |s2cid=143872427 | name-list-style = vanc | title = Using the theory of gender and power to examine experiences of partner violence, sexual negotiation, and risk of HIV/AIDS among economically disadvantaged women in Southern India | journal = [[Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma]] | volume = 15 | issue = 3–4 | pages = 155–178 | doi = 10.1080/10926770802097327 | date = December 2007 }}{{Paywall}}</ref> Other ailments such as malnutrition and parasite burden can weaken the mother and create a dangerous environment, making sex, birth, and maternal care riskier for poor women.<ref name = "Stillwaggon_2008" /> In Korea poor health is a key factor in household poverty.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/19371910903070440 |title=A Causality Between Health and Poverty: An Empirical Analysis and Policy Implications in the Korean Society |year=2010 |last1=Kim |first1=Jinhyun |last2=Yang |first2=Bong-Min |last3=Lee |first3=Tae-Jin |last4=Kang |first4=Eunjeong |s2cid=35542713 | name-list-style = vanc |journal=Social Work in Public Health |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=210–222 |pmid=20391262}}{{Paywall}}</ref>

===Women as a solution to poverty===
Due to financial aid programs for impoverished families assuming only women to be responsible for the maintenance of a household and caring for children, the burden may fall on women to ensure this financial aid is properly managed. Such programs also tend to assume that women all have the same social standing and needs, even though this is not the case.<ref name= rethinkingthefeminizationofpoverty>{{cite journal|last1=Chant|first1=Sylvia|s2cid=3158321| name-list-style = vanc |title=Re-thinking the ''Feminization of Poverty'' in Relation to Aggregate Gender Indices|journal=Journal of Human Development|date=July 2006|volume=7|issue=2|pages=201–220|doi=10.1080/14649880600768538|url=http://personal.lse.ac.uk/chant/chantpdfs/Chant_JHD_PDF.pdf|access-date=5 April 2018}}</ref> This effect is exacerbated by the increased number of NGOs targeting solely female development. Women are expected to maintain the household as well as lift the family out of poverty, responsibilities which can add to the burden of poverty that females face in developing nations.<ref name= addressingworldpovertythroughwomenandgirls>{{cite journal|last1=Chant|first1=Sylvia| name-list-style = vanc |title=Addressing World Poverty through Women and Girls: A feminized solution?|journal=Sight and Life Magazine|date=2016|volume=30|issue=2|pages=58–62|url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/68589/1/Chant_Addressing%20world%20poverty_2016.pdf|access-date= 5 April 2018}}</ref> In many areas, [[Conditional Cash Transfer|Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs]] provide direct financial assistance to women with the goal of lifting them out of poverty, but they often end up limiting women's income-earning potential. The programs typically expect women to be responsible for the health and educational outcomes of their children, as well as require them to complete other program activities that don't allow them the time to pursue vocational or educational opportunities that would result in higher income-earning potential.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bradshaw|first1=Sarah|last2=Chant|first2=Sylvia|last3=Linneker|first3=Brian|s2cid=158223670|date=2018-10-23|title=Challenges and Changes in Gendered Poverty: The Feminization, De-Feminization, and Re-Feminization of Poverty in Latin America|journal=Feminist Economics|volume=25|pages=119–144|doi=10.1080/13545701.2018.1529417|issn=1354-5701|url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/87366/1/Chant_Challenges%20and%20changes%20in%20gendered%20poverty_author_2018.pdf}}</ref>

==Forms of poverty==
===Decision-making power===
Decision-making power is central to the bargaining position of women within the household. It is how women and men make decisions that affect the entire household unit. However, women and men often have very different priorities when it comes to determining what is most important for the family.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}} Factors that determine which member of the household has the most power in decision-making vary across cultures, but in most countries{{which|date=April 2016}} there is extreme gender inequality in the household.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicef.org/sowc07/profiles/inequality_household.php|title=Inequality in the household - State of the World's Children 2007: Gender equality|website=www.unicef.org|access-date=2017-01-31}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}}  Men of the household usually{{Clarify|date=April 2016}} have the power to determine what choices are made towards women's health, their ability to visit friends and family, and household expenditures.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}} The ability to make choices for their own health affects both women and children's health.  How household expenditures are decided affects women and children's education, health, and well-being. Women's freedom of mobility affects their ability to provide for their own needs as well as for the needs of their children.

Gender discrimination within households is often rooted in patriarchal biases against the social status of women.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}} Major determinants of the household bargaining power include control of income and assets, age, and access to and level of education. As women's decision-making power increases, the welfare of their children and the family in general benefits. Women who achieve greater education are also more likely to worry about their children's survival, nutrition, and school attendance.<ref name="UNICEF">UNICEF. "Women and Children: The Double Dividend of Gender Equality." The State of the World's Children (2007): 1–148. Print.</ref>

===Disparate income===
{{further|Gender pay gap}}
Lack of income is a principal reason for women's risk of poverty.  Income deprivation prevents women from attaining resources and converting their monetary resources into socioeconomic status. Not only does higher income allow greater access to job skills; obtaining more job skills raises income as well.  As women earn less income than men and struggle to access public benefits.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cianciolo |first=Bethany |date=15 March 2022 |title=Women still earn less than men. 6 leaders explain what’s needed to close the gap |work=[[CNN]] |url=https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2022/03/business/perspectives/closing-the-gender-pay-gap/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404232959/https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2022/03/business/perspectives/closing-the-gender-pay-gap/index.html |archive-date=4 April 2022 |access-date=1 July 2022}}</ref> They are deprived of basic education and health care, which eventually becomes a cycle to debilitate women's ability to earn higher income.<ref>Sen, Amartya. "Poverty as Capability Deprivation." Development as Freedom. 1999. 87–110. Print.</ref>

=== Energy poverty ===
{{Excerpt|Energy poverty and gender}}

===Lack of assets===
According to Martha Nussbaum,<ref name="Nussbaum_2004" /> one central human functional capability is being able to hold property of both land and movable goods. In various nations, women are not full equals under the law, which means they do not have the same property rights as men; the rights to make a contract; or the rights of association, mobility, and religious liberty.<ref name="Nussbaum_2004" /> Assets are primarily owned by husbands or are used for household production or consumption, neither of which help women with loan repayments. In order to refund their loans, women are usually required to undergo the 'disempowering' process of having to work harder as wage laborers, while also encountering a growing gendered resource divide at the domestic level.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Chant S | year = 2014 | title = Exploring the "feminisation of poverty" in relation to women's work and home-based enterprise in slums of the Global South | journal =  International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship | volume = 6 | issue = 3 | pages = 296–316 | doi = 10.1108/ijge-09-2012-0035 | url = http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64510/1/__lse.ac.uk_storage_LIBRARY_Secondary_libfile_shared_repository_Content_Chant%2CS_Exploring%20feminisation%20poverty_Chant_Exploring%20feminisation%20poverty_2015.pdf }}</ref> One of the major factors influencing women to greater poverty are the limited opportunities, capabilities, and empowerment in terms of access to and control over production resources of land, labor, human capital assets including education and health, and social capital assets such as participation at various levels, legal rights, and protection.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Awumbila M | s2cid = 154300298 | date = 2007 | title = Gender equality and poverty in Ghana: Implications for poverty reduction strategies | journal = GeoJournal | volume = 67 | issue = 2 | pages = 149–161 | doi = 10.1007/s10708-007-9042-7 }}</ref>

===Time poverty===
Time is a component that is included in poverty because it is an essential resource that is oftentimes distributed inequitably across individuals, especially in the context of the inadequacy of other resources.<ref name = "Gammage_2010" /> It is extremely relevant to gender, with a marked difference in gender roles and responsibilities observed across the world.<ref name = "Gammage_2010" /> Women are certainly more time-poor than men across the income distribution.<ref name = "Gammage_2010" /> Women concentrate on reproductive or unremunerated activities, while men concentrate in productive or compensated activities. Women generally face more limited access to leisure and work more hours in the sum of productive and reproductive work than do men.<ref name = "Gammage_2010" /> Time poverty can be interpreted in regards to the lack of sufficient time to rest and sleep. The greater the time devoted to paid or unremunerated work, the less time there is available for other activities such as relaxation and pleasure. A person who lacks adequate time to sleep and rest, levies and works in a state of 'time poverty'.<ref name = "Gammage_2010" /> The allocation of time between women and men in the household and in the economy, is a major gender issue in the evolving discourse on time poverty.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Abdourahman OI | year = 2017 | title = Time Poverty: A Contributor to Women's Poverty? | journal = The African Statistical Journal | volume = 11 | pages = 287–307 | doi = 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199468256.003.0008 | isbn = 9780199468256 }}</ref> According to the capabilities approach, any inquiry into people's well-being must involve asking not only how much people make but also how they manage their time in order to obtain the goods and services to meet their livelihoods.<ref name = "Benería_2015">{{cite book | vauthors = Benería L, Berik G, Floro M | year = 2015 | title = Gender, Development, and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered | edition = Second | location = London and New York | publisher = Routledge }}</ref> Time poverty is a serious constraint on individual well-being as it prevents having sufficient rest and sleep, enjoying leisure, and taking part in community or social life.<ref name = "Benería_2015" />

===Capability deprivations===
Since the last twenty-five years, feminist research has consistently stressed the importance of more holistic conceptual frameworks to encapsulate gendered privation.<ref>{{cite journal | first = Sylvia | last = Chant | s2cid = 154939529 | name-list-style = vanc | year = 2008  | title = The 'Feminisation of Poverty' and the 'Feminisation' of Anti-Poverty Programmes: Room for Revision? | journal = The Journal of Development Studies | volume = 44 | issue = 2 | pages = 165–197 | doi = 10.1080/00220380701789810 }}</ref> These include: 'capability' and 'human development' frameworks, which identify factors such as deprivations in education and health. Another is 'livelihoods' frameworks, which indicate social as well as material assets. Also, 'social exclusion' perspectives, which highlight the marginalization of the poor; and frameworks which stress the significance of subjective dimensions of poverty such as self-esteem, dignity, choice, and power. A higher share of women than of men are poor, women undergo greater depth or severity of poverty than men, women are likely to experience more persistent and longer-term poverty than men, women's irregular burden of poverty is increasing relative to men, women face more difficulties in lifting themselves out of poverty, and women-headed households are the 'poorest of the poor' are the common characterizations of the 'Feminization of poverty'.

===Deprivation of health outcomes===
Poor women are more vulnerable to chronic diseases because of material deprivation and psychosocial stress, higher levels of risk behavior, unhealthy living conditions and limited access to good quality healthcare.<ref>{{cite web | title = Chronic diseases and health promotion. Part Two. The urgent need for action. | date = 21 December 2015 | url =https://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/part2_ch2/en/index1.html | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20060924114558/http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/part2_ch2/en/index1.html | url-status =dead | archive-date =24 September 2006 | publisher = World Health Organization }}</ref> Women are more susceptible to diseases in poverty because they are less well-nourished and healthy than men and more vulnerable to physical violence and sexual abuse. Being able to have good health, including reproductive health, be adequately nourished, and have adequate shelter can make an enormous difference to their lives.<ref name="Nussbaum_2004" /> Violence against women is a major contributing factor to HIV infection. Stillwaggon argues that in sub-Saharan Africa poverty associated with high-risk for HIV transmission adds to the stigma and social risk for women and girls in particular. Poverty and its correlates like malnutrition and parasite burden can weaken the host and create a dangerous environment, making sex and birth and medical care riskier for poor women.<ref name = "Stillwaggon_2008" >{{cite journal | vauthors = Stillwaggon E | s2cid = 154082747 | year = 2008 | title = Race, Sex, and the Neglected Risks for Women and Girls in Sub-Saharan Africa. | journal = Feminist Economics | volume = 14 | issue = 4 | pages = 67–86 | doi = 10.1080/13545700802262923 }}</ref>

===Social and cultural exclusions===

Other metrics can be used besides the [[poverty line]], to see whether or not people are impoverished in their respective countries.<ref name="Morocco"/> The concept of social and cultural exclusion helps to better convey poverty as a process that involves multiple agents.<ref name="Morocco"/> Many developing countries have social and cultural norms that prevent women from having access to formal employment.<ref name="Missing">{{cite news|last=Sen|first=Amartya | name-list-style = vanc |title=More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1990/dec/20/more-than-100-million-women-are-missing/?pagination=false|newspaper=The New York Review of Books|date=20 December 1990}}</ref> Especially in parts of Asia, North Africa, and Latin America, the cultural and social norms do not allow women to have much labor productivity outside the home as well as an economic bargaining position within the household.<ref name="Missing"/> This social inequality deprives women of capabilities, particularly employment, which leads to women having a higher risk of poverty.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Sen | first1 = Amartya | name-list-style = vanc | chapter = Chapter 4: Poverty as Capability Deprivation | title=Development as Freedom | date = 1999 | publisher = Oxford Univ. Press | location = Oxford | isbn = 978-0-19-829758-1 | edition = 1st | pages = 87–110, 314–19 }}</ref> This increase in occupational [[gender segregation]] and widening of the [[gender wage gap]] increases women's susceptibility to poverty.<ref name="ARS"/>

==Measures of poverty==
An important aspect of analyzing the feminization of poverty is the understanding of how it is measured. It is inaccurate to assume that income is the only deprivation that affects women's poverty. To examine the issue from a multidimensional perspective, there must first be accurate and indices available for policy makers interested in gender empowerment.<ref name="Fukuda-Parr_1999" /> Often aggregate indices are criticized for their concentration on monetary issues, especially when data on women's income is sparse and groups women into one large, undifferentiated mass.<ref name=Sylvia2006/> Three indexes often examined are [[Gender-related Development Index]], [[Gender Empowerment Measure]], and [[Human Poverty Index]]. The first two are gendered- indices, in that they specifically gather data on women to evaluate gender inequalities,<ref name="Fukuda-Parr_1999" /> and are useful in understanding disparities in gender opportunities and choices.<ref name="Fukuda-Parr_1999" /> [[Human Poverty Index|HPI]], however, focuses on deprivation measures rather than income measures.<ref name="Fukuda-Parr_1999" />

[[Gender-related Development Index|GDI]] adjusts the [[Human Development Index]] in three ways:
*	Shows longevity, or life-expectancy of females and males
*	Education or knowledge
*	Decent standard of living<ref name=Sylvia2006/>
The aim of this index is to rank countries according to both their absolute level of human development and relative scores on gender equality. Although this index has increased government attention to gender inequality and development, its three measures have often been criticized for neglecting important aspects. Its relevance, however, continues to be integral to the understanding of the feminization of poverty, as countries with lower scores may then be then stimulated to focus on policies to assess and reduce gender disparities.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/13545700050076106 |title=Measuring socio-economic GENDER inequality: toward an alternative to the UNDP Gender-Related Development Index |date = January 2000 |last1=Dijkstra |first1=A. Geske |last2=Hanmer |first2=Lucia |s2cid=154578195 | name-list-style = vanc |journal= [[Feminist Economics (journal)|Feminist Economics]] |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=41–75 }}</ref>

[[Gender Empowerment Measure|GEM]] measures female political and income opportunities through:
*	Analyzing how many seats of government are occupied by women
*	Proportion of management positions occupied by women
*	Female share of jobs
*	Estimated female to male income ratio<ref name=Sylvia2006/>
HPI is a multidimensional, non-income-based approach. It takes into consideration four dimensions:
*	Survival
*	Knowledge
*	Decent standard of living
*	Social participation
This index is useful in understanding and illuminating the differences between human poverty (which focuses on the denial of basic rights, such as dignity and freedom) and income poverty. For example, despite the U.S.'s high income stability, it is also ranked among the highest developed nations in human poverty.<ref name="Fukuda-Parr_1999" /> In her article, "Towards a Gendered Human Poverty Measure", Elizabeth Durbin critiques HPI and expands on the possibility of a gender-sensitive index. She argues that HPI incorporates three dimensions of poverty: life span measured by the proportion of the population expected to die before age 40, lack of knowledge measured by the proportion who are illiterate, and a decent standard of living measured by a composite index of access to health services, access to safe water, and malnutrition among children less than 5, that could specifically account for gender disparities. Despite its uses, however, it is important to note that HPI cannot be a true measure of poverty because it fails to examine certain deprivations, such as lack of property ownership and credit, that are essential to a stronger bargaining position in the household for women.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Durbin |first1=Elizabeth | name-list-style = vanc |date= January 1999 |title=Towards a gendered human poverty measure |journal=[[Feminist Economics (journal)|Feminist Economics]] |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=105–108 |doi=10.1080/135457099338003 }}</ref>

==Religion==
Within many of the major religious groups in the world, focus is placed upon traditional gender roles and each individual's duty. Many devout followers of each religion have used their respective religious texts or rulings to further the poverty cycle of women around the world.

===Islam===
In a 2004 report by the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, [[Muslim]] women were found more likely to work part-time jobs than Muslim men because of their religion's emphasis on the role of women as caregivers and housekeepers. The study found that these women are more likely to be financially dependent than men because they choose to participate less in the labor market.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Predelli|first=Line Nyhagen|s2cid=145767839| name-list-style = vanc |title=Interpreting Gender in Islam|journal=Gender & Society |volume=18|issue=4|pages=473–493|doi=10.1177/0891243204265138|year=2004}}</ref> Muslim women who choose to wear traditional female Muslim accessories such as [[henna]] and [[hijab]]s may have a more difficult time finding employment than those who do not wear such clothing. On the local level, a woman was fired from a Jiffy Lube for refusing to remove her hijab at work because it violated the company's "no hat" rule.<ref>{{cite book | title = Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States | year = 2007 | publisher = Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) | series = Civil Rights Report | url = https://www.cair.com/images/pdf/CAIR-2007-Civil-Rights-Report.pdf }}</ref> In the 2008 case Webb versus Philadelphia, the court ruled that an officer wearing her hijab with her uniform, was in violation of the states' standard of neutrality. Because of the violation of this standard, she was not allowed to legally wear the hijab while on duty.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/webb-v-city-philadelphia-amicus-brief|title=Webb v. City of Philadelphia - Amicus Brief|work=American Civil Liberties Union|access-date=2017-10-30 }}</ref>

===Traditional Judaism===
Under traditional [[Halakha|Halachic law]], [[Jews|Jewish]] women are also considered to be household caregivers rather than breadwinners. Within the Jewish text, the [[Mishnah]], it states "she should fill for him his cup, make ready his bed and wash his face, hands and feet," when describing the role of women under Jewish law.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cohen-Almagor |first1=Raphael |s2cid=151820083 |title=Discrimination against Jewish Women in (Jewish Law) and in Israel |journal=British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies |date=2 December 2016 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=290–310 |doi=10.1080/13530194.2016.1258543 |ssrn=2879478|url=https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/443984 }}</ref>

===Christianity===
Certain sects of [[Christianity]] also regard women as more family-oriented than men.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=May|first1=Matthew|last2=Reynolds|first2=Jeremy|s2cid=148598965| name-list-style = vanc |date=2017-09-09|title=Religious Affiliation and Work–Family Conflict Among Women and Men |journal=Journal of Family Issues |volume=39|issue=7|doi=10.1177/0192513x17728985|page=0192513X1772898}}</ref>

==Female poverty by region==

Many developing countries in the world have exceptionally high rates of females under the poverty line. Many countries in [[Women in Asia|Asia]], [[Women in Africa|Africa]], and parts of Europe deprive women of access to higher income and important capabilities. Women in these countries are disproportionately put at the highest risk of poverty and continue to face social and cultural barriers that prevent them from escaping poverty.<ref>{{cite web|title=Gender and Extreme Poverty|url=https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1870/Gender_Extreme_Poverty_Discussion_Paper.pdf|website=USAID.gov|publisher=USAID|access-date=16 April 2018}}</ref>

===East Asia===

Although China has grown tremendously in its economy over the past years, its economic growth has had minimal effect on decreasing the number of females below the poverty line. Economic growth did not reduce gender gaps in income or provide more formal employment opportunities for women. Instead, China's economic growth increased its use of informal employment, which has affected women disproportionately. In the Republic of Korea, low wages for women helped instigate an economic growth in Korea since low-cost exports were mostly produced by women. Similar to China, Korean women mostly had the opportunity for informal employment, which deprives women of financial stability and safe working environments. Although women in East Asia had greater access to employment, they faced job segregation in export industries, which placed them at a high risk of poverty.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url = http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/%28httpAuxPages%29/8BACF1B0908D70E1C125778900323600?OpenDocument | chapter = Chapter 4 – Gender Inequalities at Home and in the Market | title = Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics | publisher = United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) | location = Geneva, Switzerland | pages = 107–131 | isbn = 978-92-9085-076-2 | year = 2010 }}</ref>

China is a country with a long history of gender discrimination. In order to address gender inequality issues, Chinese leaders have created more access for women to obtain capabilities. As a result, Chinese women are granted greater access to health services, employment opportunities, and general recognition for their important contributions to the economy and society.<ref name="Missing"/>

=== Africa ===
[[Women in Africa]] face considerable barriers to achieving economic equality with their male counterparts due to a general lack of property rights, access to credit, education and technical skills, health, protection against gender-based violence, and political power.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2019-july-2019/african-women-politics-miles-go-parity-achieved|title=African Women in politics: Miles to go before parity is achieved|last1=Musau|first1=Zipporah|website=Africa Renewal|date=8 April 2019|access-date=23 October 2019}}</ref> Although women work 50% longer workdays than men,<ref name=":0" /> they receive two-thirds of the pay of their male counterparts and hold only 40% of formal salaried jobs.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_Womens_Empowerment_Africa_Main_Report.pdf|title=Women's Economic Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa|last=Chichester|first=Ouida|date=March 2017|website=Business for Social Responsibility}}</ref> The longer workdays can be attributed to the cultural expectations of women to perform forms of unpaid labor such as gathering firewood, drawing water, childcare, eldercare, and housework.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Citation|chapter=Feminization of Poverty|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Poverty|publisher=Sage Publications, Inc.|isbn=9781412918077|doi=10.4135/9781412939607.n239|year=2006}}</ref> Women face greater challenges in finding employment because of their lack of education. According to Montenegro and Patrinos, one additional year of primary, secondary, and tertiary school can increase future wages by 17.5%, 12.7%, and 21.3% respectively.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Montenegro|first1=Claudio E.|last2=Patrinos|first2=Harry Anthony|s2cid=131960098|date=September 2014|title=Comparable Estimates of Returns to Schooling around the World|journal=Policy Research Working Papers|doi=10.1596/1813-9450-7020|hdl=10986/20340|issn=1813-9450|url=http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2014/09/04/000158349_20140904084836/Rendered/PDF/WPS7020.pdf|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Unfortunately, due to factors such as child marriage, early pregnancy, and cultural norms, only 21% of girls complete tertiary school.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Annual Results Report: 2017 Education|publisher=UNICEF|year=2017}}</ref> Without formal property rights, women in Africa only own 15% of the land, which makes them more vulnerable to be economically dependent on male family members or partners and diminishes their ability to use property to access financial systems such as banks and loans.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The State of Food and Agriculture: Women in Agriculture|publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization|year=2011|location=Rome}}</ref> As a result of having less economic power, women are generally more vulnerable to gender-based violence and risk of HIV/AIDS.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kang’ethe|first1=S.M.|last2=Munzara|first2=Memory|s2cid=96461804|date=July 2014|title=Exploring an Inextricable Relationship between Feminization of Poverty and Feminization of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe|journal=Journal of Human Ecology|volume=47|issue=1|pages=17–26|doi=10.1080/09709274.2014.11906735|issn=0970-9274}}</ref>

===Morocco===

The female population, especially in rural areas, dominantly represents the face of poverty in [[Morocco]]. There have been two major methods to measure poverty in Morocco, which include the 'classic approach' and a second approach that pertains more towards the [[capabilities approach]]. The 'classic approach' uses the poverty line to statistically determine the impoverished population. This approach quantifies the number of poor individuals and households but does not take into account how the impoverished population lacks basic needs such as housing, food, health and education. The second approach focuses on satisfying this lack of basic needs and emphasizes the multidimensional nature of poverty.<ref name="Morocco"/>

Moroccan women represent the most economically insecure social group in the country. One of six Moroccan households are lone-mother households, which represent the most impoverished households in the country. Women are categorized to have the highest levels of socio-economic and legal constraints, which exclude them from obtaining their basic needs. Although recent surveys show that women actively help in providing for their families economically, Moroccan legal texts discourage women's participation in economic productivity. Article 114 of the Moroccan Family Law states, "every human being is responsible for providing for his needs by his own powers except the wife whose needs will be taken care of by her husband." The patriarchal social structure of Morocco puts women as being inferior to men in all aspects. Women are denied equal opportunities in education and employment before the law, as well as access to resources. As a result, the female population in Morocco suffers from deprivation of capabilities. Young girls are often excluded from educational opportunities due to limited financial resources within the household and the burden of household chores expected from them.<ref name="Morocco"/>

Over time, Moroccan women have gained more access to employment. However, this quantitative increase in labor participation for women has not been accompanied by higher qualitative standards of labor. The labor of rural women in Morocco remain unacknowledged and unpaid. Women are put into a higher risk of poverty as their domestic workload is added onto their unpaid labor. This balance of domestic labor and work outside the home imposes a burden on rural women. Since the socioeconomic exclusion of women deprive them of the capabilities to be educated and trained for certain employment skills, their susceptibility to poverty is heightened. Low educational skills of women directly relate to the limited employment options they have in society. Although both men and women are affected by unemployment, women are more likely to lose their jobs than men. Recent research in Morocco shows that economic recessions in the country affect women the most.<ref name="Morocco"/>

===United Kingdom===
An investigation of women below the poverty line in the United Kingdom between 1959 and 1984 discovered a substantial increase in the percentage of women who are in poverty in the 1960s. The percentage remained relatively constant in the 1970s, and then decreased between 1979 and 1984. The increase of women below the poverty line in the 1960s was determined to be from an increase of women in one-sex households. This was more adverse for black women than white women.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Fuchs | first = Victor R. | name-list-style = vanc | author-link = Victor Fuchs | title = The feminization of poverty | journal= NBER Working Paper No. 1934 | doi = 10.3386/w1934 | date = June 1986  | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last = Wright | first = Robert E. | name-list-style = vanc | title = A feminization of poverty in Great Britain? | journal = [[Review of Income and Wealth]] | volume = 38 | issue = 1 | pages = 17–25 | doi = 10.1111/j.1475-4991.1992.tb00398.x | date = March 1992 }}</ref>

===Dominican Republic===
Dominican women make generally forty-four cents on the dollar as compared to men. This [[Gender pay gap|wage gap]] often leads to a high level of food insecurity among women in the Dominican Republic. Those in poverty have an increased likelihood to participate in dangerous behaviors such as unprotected sex and [[Substance abuse|drug use]]. These behaviors put them at a greater risk for contracting HIV and other diseases. There is a negative stigma around [[HIV|HIV positive]] women in the Dominican Republic. For this reason, women are more likely to be subjected to health screenings when applying for a job. If the screening reveals a person is HIV positive, they are less likely to be given employment.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Derose|first=Kathryn| name-list-style = vanc |date=25 July 2017|title=Factors contributing to food insecurity among women living with HIV in the Dominican Republic: A qualitative study|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181568|pmid=28742870|pmc=5526502|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=12|issue=7|pages=e0181568|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281568D|doi-access=free}}</ref>

===United States===
In 2016, 14.0% of women and 11.3% of men were below the poverty threshold.<ref name = "Semega_2017">{{cite web |url=https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/p60/259/pov_table3.xls |title=Table 3. People in Poverty by Selected Characteristics: 2015 and 2016 |last1=Semega |first1=Jessica |last2=Fontenot | first2=Kayla | last3=Kollar | first3=Melissa  | name-list-style = vanc |date=12 September 2017 |website=Income and Poverty in the United States: 2016 |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=31 December 2017 }}</ref> The 2016 poverty threshold was $12,228 for single people and $24,339 for a family of four with two children.<ref name = "Semega_2017" />

In response, the United States government provides financial assistance to those who do not earn as much money. In 2015, 23.2% of women were given financial assistance compared with 19.3% of men.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p70-141.pdf | title=Dynamics of Economic Well-Being: Participation in Government Programs, 2009–2012: Who Gets Assistance? |last1=Irving |first1=Shelley |last2=Loveless | first2=Tracy | name-list-style = vanc |date=May 2015 |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=31 December 2017 }}</ref> More women are given financial assistance than men in all government programs ([[Medicaid]], [[Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program|SNAP]], housing assistance, [[Supplemental Security Income|SSI]], [[Temporary Assistance for Needy Families|TANF]]/[[General Assistance|GA]]). Women were given 86% of child-support in 2013.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/P60-255.pdf |title=Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2013 |last1=Grall |first1=Timothy | name-list-style = vanc |date=Jan 2016 |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=31 December 2017 }}</ref>

===India===

The poverty that women experience in India is known as human poverty, or issues of inadequate food, housing, [[education]], [[healthcare]], sanitation, poor developmental policies, and more.<ref name=womeninpoverty>{{cite journal|last1=Argiropoulos|first1=Catherine|last2=Rajagopal|first2=Indhu| name-list-style = vanc |title=Women in Poverty: Canada and India|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|date=15 February 2003|volume=38|issue=7|pages=612–614|jstor=4413213}}</ref> Poverty has been prevalent in India for many years, but there was a noticeable increase after [[globalization]] in 1991 when the [[International Monetary Fund]] instilled a [[structural adjustment]] program (SAP) in order to give India a loan. Large amounts of capital flowed into the country but also led to the exploitation of the Indian market, particularly of women for their cheap labor. This reduced their opportunities for education and escape from the [[poverty trap]].<ref name="womeninpoverty"/>

The Indian Constitution has proclaimed that all citizens have equal rights, but this is not always practiced by all Indians.<ref name=wearepoorbutsomany>{{cite book|last1=Bhatt|first1=Ela|name-list-style=vanc|title=We Are Poor but So Many: The Story of Self-Employed Women in India|date=15 December 2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195169843|edition=1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/wearepoorbutsoma00bhat_0}}</ref> [[Sex-selective abortion]] is a wide phenomenon in India in which males are preferentially selected. In order to get married, it is normal to see the girl's family paying [[dowry]] to the male's family. This leads to more sex-selective abortion as females are more costly for the family, and less focus on female development.<ref name=fallingsexratioandhealthdeprivationofwomeninindia>{{cite journal|last1=Sarap|first1=Kailas|last2=Das|first2=Sanjukta|last3=Nagla|first3=Madhu|s2cid=59532260| name-list-style = vanc |title=Falling Sex Ratio and Health Deprivation of Women in India: An Interface between Resource, Culture and Gender|journal=Sociological Bulletin|date=December 2013|volume=62|issue=3|pages=456–482|jstor= 26290688|doi=10.1177/0038022920130305}}</ref>

====Home life====
Women are restricted in India due to a heavy dependency of social status on female appearance and activity around the home. Poor behavior on their part results in lower social status and shame for the male head of the family.<ref name=statuscasteandthetimeallocationofwomeninruralindia>{{cite journal|last1=Eswaran|first1=Mukesh|last2=Ramaswami|first2=Bharat|last3=Wadhwa|first3=Wilima| name-list-style = vanc |title=Status, Caste, and the Time Allocation of Women in Rural India|journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change|date=January 2013|volume=61|issue=2|pages=311–333|jstor=10.1086/668282|doi=10.1086/668282|s2cid=36963121|url=http://www.isid.ac.in/~pu/dispapers/dp11-12.pdf}}</ref> Women are expected to maintain the household with a strict schedule. Husbands often move to the city to find work and leave their wife as the primary earner in their absence. Women in these situations may resort to using favors or borrowing money in order to survive, which they must later return in cash with interest. Young girls are especially vulnerable to prostitution or bribing as a form of repayment. Competition amongst women around water, food, and employment is also prevalent, especially in urban [[slums]].<ref name="wearepoorbutsomany"/>

====Employment====
The expectation for Indian women is to be the sole care taker and maintainer of the home.<ref name="womeninpoverty"/> If women leave their children and work they are often left in the hands of a poor care taker (possibly the eldest daughter) and don't get enough resources for development.<ref name= womenhealthandpublicservicesinindia>{{cite book|last1=Sinha|first1=Dipa| name-list-style = vanc |title=Women, Health and Public Services in India : Why Are States Different?|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-138-64804-3|chapter=3}}</ref> In many areas working outside of the home is seen as symbolic of having low status. Upper-class women have similar social restrictions, although lower class females frequently have a larger necessity of the added income than upper class females.<ref name="statuscasteandthetimeallocationofwomeninruralindia"/> Men tend to send money back to extended family, whereas money that a woman makes goes to her husband. This reduces the incentive of the family to urge their daughter to find work as they wouldn't receive money but would face shame in society.<ref name=genderdisparitiesineducationaltrajectoriesinindia>{{cite journal|last1=Husain|first1=Zakir|last2=Sarkar|first2=Swagata|s2cid=143764682| name-list-style = vanc |title=Gender Disparities in Educational Trajectories in India: Do Females Become More Robust at Higher Levels?|journal=Social Indicators Research|date=March 2011|volume=101|issue=1|pages=37–56|jstor=41476418|doi=10.1007/s11205-010-9633-4}}</ref>

Conceptual barriers prevent women from being accepted as equally paid and equally able laborers.<ref name="wearepoorbutsomany"/> In many ways women are seen as excess reserve labor and get pushed into roles that are known as being dirty, unorganized, arduous, and underdeveloped. They are hurt by the [[mechanization]] of industries and while [[self-employment]] is a viable option, there is always a large risk of failure and exploitation.<ref name="wearepoorbutsomany"/>

====Healthcare====
[[Healthcare]] is difficult to access for women, particularly elderly women. Public clinics are overcrowded, understaffed, and have high transportation costs, while private clinics are too expensive without insurance.<ref name= understandinggovernmentfailureinpublichealthservices>{{cite journal|last1=Hammer|first1=Jeffrey|last2=Aiyar|first2=Yamini|last3=Samji|first3=Salimah| name-list-style = vanc |title=Understanding Government Failure in Public Health Services|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|date=6 October 2017|volume=42|issue=40|pages=4049–4057|jstor=40276648}}</ref><ref name=accesstohealthcareamongpoorelderlywomeninIndia>{{cite journal|last1=Balagopal|first1=Gayathri|s2cid=72747696| name-list-style = vanc |title=Access to health care among poor elderly women in India: how far do policies respond to women's realities?|journal=Gender and Development|date=November 2009|volume=17|issue=3|pages=481–491|jstor= 27809251|doi=10.1080/13552070903298543}}</ref> Females are more likely to get ill than males although males receive medical advice with higher frequency.<ref name= "fallingsexratioandhealthdeprivationofwomeninindia"/> Women frequently feel as if they are a burden to their husband or son when they get sick and require money to purchase the correct medicines. Some believe that their [[symptoms]] are not serious or important enough to spend money on.<ref name="accesstohealthcareamongpoorelderlywomeninIndia"/> When women do receive some form of care, many times medical providers are biased against them and are partial to treating males over females.<ref name="wearepoorbutsomany"/><ref name= "fallingsexratioandhealthdeprivationofwomeninindia"/> Many mothers also die during [[childbirth]] or [[pregnancy]] as they suffer from [[malnutrition]] and [[anemia]]. Over 50% of women in the National Family Health Surveys were anemic.<ref name= sexdifferentialsinchildhoodfeeding>{{cite journal|last1=Mishra|first1=Vinod|last2=Roy|first2=T.|last3=Retherford|first3=Robert| name-list-style = vanc |title=Sex Differentials in Childhood Feeding, Health Care, and Nutritional Status in India|journal=Population and Development Review|date=June 2004|volume=30|issue=2|pages=269–295|jstor=3401386|doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2004.013_1.x|url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/3752/1/POPwp113.pdf|hdl=10125/3752|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

====Nutrition====
[[Poverty]] is a large source of [[malnutrition]] in women. Women in poverty are not allowed to eat the nutritious food that men are when it is available. While it is the women's job to obtain the food, it is fed to the males of the household.<ref name= "fallingsexratioandhealthdeprivationofwomeninindia"/> The 2005-2006 National Family Health Survey found that more men drink milk and eat fruit in comparison to women, and that less than 5% of females in the states of [[Punjab]], [[Haryana]], and [[Rajasthan]] eat meat or eggs. Poor nutrition begins at a young age and gets worse as women mature and become mothers.<ref name= "fallingsexratioandhealthdeprivationofwomeninindia"/>

====Education====
Effective policies to aid in expanding [[female education]] aren't productively enforced by the [[Government of India]]. Data from the 2001 census showed that primary school completion rates were around 62% for males and 40% for females.<ref name="wearepoorbutsomany"/> Teenage girls are generally taught how to care for their siblings and cook food and not taught math or science.<ref name="wearepoorbutsomany"/> Some families may believe men to be more qualified than women to get a higher paying job. In many instances this inequality between male and female education leads to [[child marriage]], teenage pregnancies, and a male dominated household.<ref name="womeninpoverty"/> Evidence suggests that educating girls results in reduced [[fertility]], due to an urge to work and pursue higher social status. This lessens the financial burden on families.<ref name = "womenhealthandpublicservicesinindia"/>

==Policies==

===Conditional cash transfer===

[[Conditional cash transfer]] is a possible policy for addressing current and intergenerational poverty where poor women play a central role. Women in the role as mothers are given the additional work burdens imposed. Conditional cash transfers are not ideal for addressing single-mother poverty.

===Microcredit===

[[Microcredit]] can be a potential policy for assisting poor women in developing countries. Microcredit is a tool design to hopefully alleviate poverty given that women living in developing countries have very few resources and connections for survival due to not having a solid financial foundation.

===Welfare reform in the U.S.===

In light of welfare reforms as of 2001, federal legislation required recipients of welfare (mainly aided to families) to participate in an educational or vocational school and work part-time in order to receive the benefits. Recipients attending a college now have 3 years to complete those degree in order to get people to work as quickly as possible.<ref name="Tiamiyu_2001">{{cite journal | vauthors = Tiamiyu M, Mitchell S | s2cid = 152954494 | year = 2001 | title = Welfare Reform: Can Higher Education Reduce the Feminization of Poverty? | journal = Urban Review | volume = 33 | issue = 1| page = 47 | doi=10.1023/a:1010384829009}}</ref> To try towards a system of reward, Mojisola Tiamiyu and Shelley Mitchell, suggest implementing child care services to promote employment. Women with children work in either low-paying or part-time jobs that are insufficient to raise a family.<ref name="Tiamiyu_2001"/>{{verify source|date=August 2019}}  Single parenting in the United States has increased to 1 in 4 families being headed by a single parent.<ref name="Tiamiyu_2001"/> It is estimated that children living in single parent homes are as much as 4 times more likely to become impoverished ([[Juvenilization of poverty]]).<ref>{{cite web | title = A League Table of Child Poverty in Rich Nations | url = http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/repcard1e.pdf | publisher = UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre | location = Florence, Italy | series = Innocenti Report Card No.1 | date = June 2000 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Reproductive labor]]
* [[Capability approach]]
* [[Cycle of poverty]]
* [[Employment discrimination]]
* [[Female education]]
* [[Feminization (sociology)]]
* [[Health]]
* [[Impact of health on intelligence]]
* [[Intra-household bargaining]]
* [[Occupational segregation]]
* [[Participation (ownership)|Participation]]
* [[Poverty]]
* [[Sexism]]
* [[Single parent]]
* [[Single person]]
* [[Stereotype threat]]
* [[Unintended pregnancy]]
* [[Juvenilization of poverty]]
* [[Feminisation of the workplace#Feminisation of survival|Feminisation of survival]]
* [[Welfare queen]]{{div col end}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
C [https://www.usaid.gov/frontiers/2014/publication/section-1-capturing-womens-multidimensional-experiences-extreme-poverty APTURING WOMEN'S MULTIDIMENSIONAL EXPERIENCES OF EXTREME POVERTY]

[https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/hunger/53801-gender-inequality-women-hunger Why many of the hungry are women]

[https://truthout.org/articles/gentrification-is-a-feminist-issue-a-discussion-on-the-intersection-of-class-race-gender-and-housing/ Gentrification Is a Feminist Issue: The Intersection of Class, Race, Gender and Housing]{{refbegin|32em}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Allard | first1 = Scott W. | last2 = Danziger | first2 = Sheldon | s2cid = 53694681 | name-list-style = vanc | title = Proximity and opportunity: how residence and race affect the employment of welfare recipients | journal = Housing Policy Debate | volume = 13 | issue = 4 | pages = 675–700 | doi = 10.1080/10511482.2002.9521461 | date = January 2002 }} [http://scottwallard.com/hpd_1304_Allard.pdf Pdf.]
::''Also as'': {{cite book | last1 = Allard | first1 = Scott W. | last2 = Danziger | first2 = Sheldon | name-list-style = vanc | title = Proximity and opportunity: how residence and race affect the employment of welfare recipients | publisher = [[Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy#Research|National Poverty Center, University of Michigan]] | date = September 2001 | url = http://fordschool.umich.edu/research/poverty/pdf/ProximityandOpportunity.pdf }}
* {{cite journal | last = Palmer | first = Phyllis | name-list-style = vanc | title = "The Racial Feminization of Poverty": women of color as portents of the future for all women | journal = [[Women's Studies Quarterly]] | volume = 11 | issue = 3 | pages = 4–6 | date = Fall 1983 | jstor = 40004218 }}
* {{cite journal | last = Rowe | first = Audrey | name-list-style = vanc | title = The feminization of poverty: an issue for the 90's | journal = [[Yale Journal of Law and Feminism]] | volume = 4 | issue = 1 | pages = 73–79 | date = Fall 1991 | url = http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/yjfem4&div=14&id=&page= }} [http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=yjlf Pdf.]
* {{cite journal | last1 = Starrels | first1 = Marjorie E. | last2 = Bould | first2 = Sally | last3 = Nicholas | first3 = Leon J. | s2cid = 146360493 | name-list-style = vanc | title = The feminization of poverty in the United States: gender, race, ethnicity, and family factors | journal = [[Journal of Family Issues]] | volume = 15 | issue = 4 | pages = 590–607 | doi = 10.1177/019251394015004005 | date = December 1994 | hdl = 2027.42/67307 | url = https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67307/2/10.1177_019251394015004005.pdf | hdl-access = free }}
* {{cite book | last1 = Snyder | first1 = Anastasia | last2 = McLaughlin | first2 = Diane K. | last3 = Findeis | first3 = Jill | last4 = Coleman | first4 = Alisha | last5 = Demi | first5 = Mary Ann | name-list-style = vanc | title = Race, residence and family structure: race / ethnic differences in poverty among female-headed families | publisher = [[Population Research Institute]] | year = 2005 | url = http://paa2005.princeton.edu/papers/51371}}
{{refend}}

{{Deprivation Indicators}}

[[Category:Feminism and social class]]
[[Category:Feminist economics]]
[[Category:Feminist terminology]]
[[Category:Poverty]]