Poverty and Gender

Poverty and gender are interconnected issues that highlight the disproportionate impact of poverty on women compared to men. Globally, women represent a significant majority of those living in poverty, with estimates suggesting that between 60% to 70% of individuals below the poverty line are female. This situation is exacerbated by historical gender discrimination, societal roles that often confine women to domestic responsibilities, and limited access to education and employment opportunities.

In many regions, particularly in developing countries, women face heightened risks, including maternal health issues and human trafficking, which often stem from their economic vulnerability. The United Nations has recognized these disparities through initiatives like the Millennium Development Goals, which specifically aim to promote gender equality and empower women as a means to combat poverty. Although progress is being made, it remains slow, indicating a need for continued efforts to address systemic barriers that keep women in poverty. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for developing effective policies that support women's rights and economic independence, ultimately benefiting entire communities.

Published in: 2021

By: Wienclaw, Ruth A.

Subject Terms

Poverty and Gender

It has been widely observed that women are more likely to be affected by poverty than are men. This observation is due in part because of the greater numbers of women living below the poverty line as well as due to poverty's effect on the ability of women to care for their children. Women in poverty are also at a greater risk of exploitation compared to men in poverty. In an attempt to reduce the global impact of poverty in general and on women in particular, the United Nations developed the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 that include two goals specifically targeted towards women: to promote gender equality and empower women and to improve maternal health. Although some progress is being made toward meeting these goals in some areas around the globe, progress tends to be slow. More work is still needed around the globe to reduce or eliminate poverty in general and poverty for women in particular.

Keywords Economic Development; Gender; Globalization; Human Rights Movement; Poverty Line; Social Justice; Socioeconomic Status (SES); Trafficking

Stratification & Class in the US > Poverty & Gender

Poverty & Gender

Overview

In the United States, sociologists talk about the feminization of poverty, or the phenomenon in which an increasing proportion of those living at or below the poverty line are women and their children. Far from being a problem only in the United States or other developed countries, however, factors converge across the globe making it more likely that women will live in poverty and more difficult for them to get out of poverty. It is widely held that women—particularly those living in developing countries—bear more of the burden of poverty than do men. Estimates range between 60 and 70 percent of those living below the poverty threshold around the world are female. In 2009, American Community Survey data indicates that 55.2 percent of the 42.9 million people living in poverty in the United States were women and girls. Contributing factors to such imbalance between the sexes living in poverty could be attributed to the longer life span of women, male abandonment of their families, and discrimination against women. However, Marcoux (1998) points out that these statistics are merely estimates and have not been backed by empirical research. The data upon which these conclusions tend to be drawn are typically not gathered from household surveys but rely on limited data and case studies. This is not to say that women are not more affected by poverty than men or that they do not represent a larger proportion of the world's poor than do men. However, the degree to which an imbalance between the sexes living in poverty exists is currently not known to a statistical certainty.

United Nations Millennium Declaration & Goals

Equality

The fact remains, however, that women in many ways are more disadvantaged than men when it comes to living in poverty, at least in part because of historical gender discrimination. The United Nations Millennium Declaration (2000) takes such factors into account in their discussion of ways to reduce poverty across the globe. The declaration states that

"men and women have the right to live their lives and raise their children in dignity, free from hunger and from the fear of violence, oppression or injustice," and that "the equal rights and opportunities of women and men must be assured."

Further, the declaration states that the participants resolve

"to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable" and "to combat all forms of violence against women and to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women."

As a result of this declaration, the United Nations also created the Millennium Development Goals in an effort to articulate objectives for the reduction of poverty and the factors that contribute to it by the year 2015 around the world. Of these goals, Goal 1 (to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger) and Goal 6 (to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases) speak to the reduction of poverty and improving the standard of living of all people. In addition, two goals speak specifically to the situation of women living below the poverty line. Goal 3 is to promote gender equality and empower women and Goal 5 is to improve maternal health.

Education, Employment, and Political Participation

Gender inequality is a situation experienced not only in countries that are still undergoing economic development, but in developed countries as well. To some extent, the inequality of women has to do with the gender roles dictated to them by their cultures. Women are more likely to perform tasks within the home than are men in many cultures and are also less likely to receive the level of education necessary to allow them to acquire paid employment that will help them to improve their socioeconomic status. In fact, Goal 2 of the Millennium Development Goals is to ensure that by the year 2015 all children—girls as well as boys—will be able to complete a full course of primary education. Globally, women are slowly becoming more able to participate in paid, nonagricultural employment, particularly in areas such as southern and western Asia and Oceania where historically women have had the lowest levels of participation in the labor market. Even today, however, women tend to be more likely to be unpaid for their labors than men not only within the home but also as unpaid agricultural workers on family-owned farms. As a result, women have less access to social protection or job security. Another aspect of helping women gain equality is to support them in political participation. This situation is gradually improving.

However, Schild (2000) rightly points out that even when government institutions take steps to reduce discrimination and to open opportunities for women, official strategies — necessary as they are — do not necessarily translate into true social justice for women on a grassroots level. She observes that the political goal of achieving gender equity often becomes a technical task (e.g., creation of laws that prohibit discrimination) rather than one of true social justice for women.

Maternal Health

Goal 5 of the Millennium Development Goals is to improve maternal health. This goal affects not only the women who are mothers but their children and husbands as well. This goal has been operationally defined as reducing the maternal mortality ratio (of the year 1990) by 75 percent by 2015. Although progress is being made toward this goal, it is far from being reached. More than 287,000 women still die each year as a result of treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy or childbirth; an additional ten million women each year suffer injury, infection, or disease due to pregnancy or childbirth complications. Middle-income countries are making more rapid progress in reversing this trend. However, in low-income countries the progress is slower. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, women face a one in sixteen risk of dying of such causes over the course of their lifetimes (as opposed to 1 in 3,800 in developed countries). Nearly all maternal deaths (99 percent) occur in low-income countries and nearly all could have been prevented with the appropriate medical treatment and care; more than half of maternal deaths occur in sub-Saharan African and nearly one-third occur in South Asia. Many of these deaths are preventable with medical interventions such as contraception, prenatal checkups, or life-saving medical interventions for complications both during pregnancy and delivery. In fact, it is estimated that the prevention of unplanned pregnancies could reduce the maternal death rate by 25 percent (United Nations, 2007). This is due in part to the fact that unplanned pregnancies are usually typified by poor prenatal care. Furthermore, between 1990 and 2010, the maternal mortality rate worldwide has dropped by 47 percent. However, the United Nations estimates that 137 million women do not do any family planning and an additional 64 million use only traditional methods of contraception that have high failure rates.

Necessary health care is still not widely available to women living in poverty, particularly in developing countries. The lack of medical care is particularly notable in rural areas of developing countries. Further, a correlation has been found between education and the probability of a woman receiving health care during pregnancy and delivery. Eighty-four percent of women who have completed secondary or higher levels of education receive skilled care during childbirth. This is more than twice the rate of mothers without formal education. In addition, adolescent girls who become pregnant face a greater risk of death and disability both for themselves and for their children (United Nations, 2007).

Applications

Human Trafficking

In general, poverty is considered to be the lack of sufficient means to provide for oneself or one's family the basic necessities of life. This is operationally defined by most countries in terms of living below a poverty line, or the minimum annual income necessary for an adequate standard of living. Although this amount is much higher in the United States, globally, the poverty line is typically considered to be approximately one dollar per person per day. Absolute poverty is defined by the United Nations as "a condition of severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information." It is no wonder that many people would literally do anything to get out of such a situation. According to the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, it is a common misconception that the key vulnerability factor for becoming a victim of trafficking is poverty; a more accurate explanation for how people fall victim to trafficking rings is economic disparities between regions or countries, and the systemic mismatches between immigration policies and labor market realities that have created widespread demand for clandestine, unprotected migration. While human trafficking is a crime that cuts across race, gender, nationality, age, or socioeconomic status, high-risk populations for trafficking include vulnerable groups such as the poor, undocumented migrants, at-risk youth, and oppressed or marginalized groups.

Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of people through threat, force, coercion, abduction, deception, or abuse of power in order to exploit them for profit. Exploitation may include slavery, forced labor, bonded labor, servitude, or sexual exploitation. More than 60 percent of identified victims of trafficking are women.

Traffickers exploit the hope their victims have for attaining a better life. During recruitment, victims are given false promises of a better job in a different country, are abducted by force, or coerced with threats of violence against themselves or their loved ones. During the work phase of human trafficking, the victims are forced to work through various types of coercion, ranging from threats to violence and torture. In addition, far from bettering their lives, most of these women find that their basic needs (including food, medicine, rest, or shelter) may be denied them. Working conditions are often unsafe, and the victim is not paid for her labor. Victims may also be denied access to medical care, forced to take drugs, or exposed to sexually transmitted diseases. Even after being rescued from the exploitative situation, women may still experience a violation of their human rights. Survivors may be arrested, detained, or deported despite the fact that they were the victims trafficked into the destination country against their wills. When forced to testify against their exploiters, they may be humiliated in court. Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery and represents a gross violation of basic human rights. Although poverty alleviation interventions have not been proven effective in combating human trafficking, the economic disparities between countries must be addressed to prevent such atrocities from continuing.

Conclusion

No matter the extent to which women are more affected by poverty than men, the poverty of women around the world is an important social issue. Because of historic gender roles in most parts of the world, women often find it more difficult to gain the education, job status, or other necessary precursors to increasing their socioeconomic status and working their way out of poverty. In addition, the poverty of women affects not only the women themselves, but also their children who are also forced to live in poverty because their mothers cannot provide for them. Similarly, the negative health effects experienced by women living in poverty affect their ability to deliver and nurse a healthy child, which once again negatively impacts the lives of mothers as well as those of their children. Furthermore, because care-giving responsibilities have historically fallen to women, many women are driven into or kept in a state of poverty because of the dual demands that they care for elderly parents and young children. In addition, women are also more likely to be the victims of human trafficking, and forced to give up their freedom in an unsuccessful attempt to escape from poverty. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals have been written to take the particular needs of women into account. However, as the slow progress toward reaching these goals indicates, government mandates for gender equity do not necessarily affect the grassroots level where the real changes in attitude must take place in order for programs to be successful. More work is still needed around the globe to reduce or eliminate poverty in general and poverty for women in particular.

Terms & Concepts

Correlation: The degree to which two events or variables are consistently related. Correlation may be positive, negative, or zero (i.e., the values of the two variables are unrelated). Correlation does not imply causation.

Culture: A complex system of meaning and behavior that is socially transmitted and that defines a common way of life for a group or society. Culture includes the behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and other products of human work and thinking of the society or group.

Economic Development: The sustainable increase in living standards for a nation, region, or society. More than mere economic growth (i.e., a rise in output), economic development is sustainable and positively affects the well-being of all members of the group through such things as increased per capita income, education, health, and environmental protection. Economic development is progressive in nature and positively affects the socioeconomic structure of a society.

Empirical: Theories or evidence that are derived from or based on observation or experiment.

Feminization of Poverty: The phenomenon in which an increasing proportion of those living at or below the poverty line are women and children.

Gender: Psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral characteristics associated with being female or male. Gender is defined by one's gender identity and learned gender role.

Gender Role: Separate patterns of personality traits, mannerisms, interests, attitudes, and behaviors that are regarded as "masculine" or "feminine" by one's culture. Gender role is largely a product of the way in which one was raised and may not be in conformance with one's gender identity.

Human Rights Movement: An international movement that promotes the cause of human rights throughout the globe. According to Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Operational Definition: A definition that is stated in terms that can be observed and measured.

Poverty Line: The minimum annual income necessary for an adequate standard of living. The poverty line is determined by the government and differs from country to country.

Social Justice: A striving to achieve justice in every aspect of society not merely through the application of the law. Social justice is based on the principle of universal human rights and working to ensure that all individuals receive fair treatment and equally share the benefits of society.

Society: A distinct group of people who live within the same territory, share a common culture and way of life, and are relatively independent from people outside the group. Society includes systems of social interactions that govern both culture and social organization.

Socioeconomic Status (SES): The position of an individual or group on the two vectors of social and economic status and their combination. Factors contributing to socioeconomic status include (but are not limited to) income, type and prestige of occupation, place of residence, and educational attainment.

Trafficking: The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of people through threat, force, coercion, abduction, deception, or abuse of power in order to exploit them for profit. Exploitation may include slavery, forced labor, bonded labor, servitude, or sex purposes.

Bibliography

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Poverty and Gender

On this Page

Subject Terms

Poverty and Gender

Stratification & Class in the US > Poverty & Gender

Poverty & Gender

Overview

United Nations Millennium Declaration & Goals

Equality

Education, Employment, and Political Participation

Maternal Health

Applications

Human Trafficking

Conclusion

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

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