Essay On Feminization Of Poverty

Poverty is defined as a state or condition in which a person has little or no money, goods and/or means of support. No matter how poverty is defined families that have no male figure, single mothers, live mostly in poverty out of all demographic groups. This is often called Feminization of poverty. To better understand the feminization of poverty, it is important to recognize what are the contributions of poverty for women and what factors can decrease the probabilities of occurring. In this paper I will identify the problems that are contributing to feminization of poverty. Also, I will discuss what we need to do in order to improve this issue in America by identifying key agents and their responsibilities.

Feminization of poverty is when there is an increase in the proportion of females that fall into the low income or poverty population. Also, it is the social process in which the proportion of low income females becomes higher than the proportion of low income males. This issue not only important

because it may affect women, but because women are at higher risk of living in poverty than men. In America, 60 percent of women and 50 percent of single mothers live in poverty. Independent women are the most affected in America due to the discrimination women have in jobs or occupations.
According to Christine L. Williams, gender roles often reinforces gender inequality due to the different expectations men and women have to fulfill at home and at work. In the family, men are expected to bring home the “bacon”, the income, while women stay home to take care of the children. When it comes to occupational roles, men have to do the heavy work or the independent work such as business. Meanwhile, nearly half of women are in the administrative work, assistants, or the service oriented work, nurses. In the work field, men are most likely to be promoted than women do to the preference men have over women. William wrote, “Many of the men perceive their token status as males in predominantly female occupations as an advantage in hiring and promotions” (Williams: 341). Also the author stated, “... they are constrained by invisible barriers to promotion in their careers, caused mainly by sexist attitudes of men in the highest positions” (Williams: 342). This indicates that women are less likely to get a job or have a higher payment. This can lead women to depend on small part-time jobs and government support, contributing to the Feminization of poverty.
Gender inequality in the work place can be resolve in various ways. Firstly, we have to eliminate gender expectations. Meaning that the traditional way of viewing gender roles will have to be eliminated from the work place. Women are viewed as care givers and house wives, while men are viewed as powerful and protectors. This transitions into the work place as men holding the positions of power, while women are the helping hand. To eliminate gender inequality in the work place, by creating anonymous test and qualifications for open positions. This anonymous test will eliminate gender expectations by allowing women to have a higher possibility of been in a position of power. Leading women to move up in the eyes of society. With more women in a position of power, the gender expectation will change. Women will be no longer seen as house wives and the helping hand at the work place. Rather as the producer and authority figure in the work place. Thus, removing the gender expectations on women and men in the work place.
Christine L. Williams wrote, “… women report feeling excluded from informal leadership and decision making networks, and they sense hostility from their male coworkers, which makes them feel uncomfortable and unwanted” (William: 344). Meaning that women feel like they have less or no power in their work. In order to make female employees feel comfortable in the job, coworkers and bosses should allow women to participate and share their opinion/ideas more often. With this, females will become more accepted and have more sense of belonging in their work place. This can be done by making mandatory proposals of ideas at the meetings and conferences. Which will allow both women and men to share their ideas and opinions.
Single mothers have to work twice as hard as single women. They are not only taking care of themselves but also children with needs. Mothers and their children are vulnerable economically, educationally, and socially. Due to this, they may suffer high rates of poverty as they grow old. Also, the poverty of women frequently mirrors the percent of children in poverty. 73 million children live in poverty and 39 percent live in low income families. One third of those low income families rely on welfare.
Welfare is a governmental agency that provides many different forms of assistants. Such as, monetary payments, vouchers and stamps, and/or housing assistance. Welfare is usually provided to the elderly, unemployed, disable, veterans, and those with dependent children. According to Randy Albelda and Chris Tilly, single mothers that depend on welfare are mostly label “lazy,” too “dependent,” and too fertile (Albelda and Tilly: 605). The truth is welfare-reliant mothers cannot survive with the money provided by the government. Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein research, states how mothers spend the income that they receive. They wrote, “… we met no welfare mother who was making ends meet on her government check alone” (Edin and Lein: 326). Government is not too generous with the amount they provide to low income families, especially single mothers. Edin and Lein also wrote “Mothers filled the gap through reported and unreported work and through handouts from family, friends, and agencies…” (Edin and Lein: 326). With these findings, they determined that welfare is not enough for single mothers to get out of poverty. Welfare is not making mothers “lazy” or “dependent,” like Albelda and Tilly stated in their article but is much more than that. They wrote, “The lack of affordable childcare, the large number of jobs that fail to pay living wages and the lack of job flexibility are the real problems that face all mothers” (Albelda and Tilly: 608). With the increase of single mothers and with the increase risk of poverty, this may cause feminization of poverty.
According to Katheryn Edin and Laura Lein, many mothers who rely on welfare have to do informal jobs, apart from the money that is provided to them by the government and their jobs, and receive the money in cash, in order to “work” the system.

In their article, they wrote, “If they reported such income, their welfare checks would soon be reduce by almost the full amount of this income, leaving them as poor as before” (Edin and Lein: 324). Government cannot eliminate poverty by reducing their welfare checks. Financial aid should be limited to a certain amount of time and the amount that mothers are provided, should not be lowered depending on the amount of income they receive aside of welfare. Also, they should provide better aiding programs to raise the quality of life for women and mothers living in poor situations. This programs should include aid to find more stable jobs to get them back into the working class or prevent them from becoming part of the

underclass.
Feminization of poverty is an important issue in America. Women and single mother struggle to live according to the social expectations of this country. It is important to understand what lead to the risk of poverty in women and the factors that can reduce the probability of it happening. One of the factors that contributes to the feminization of poverty is gender inequality in the work place. This can cause unable women to find stable jobs. Another factor that contributes to it is the way welfare works. By solving this factors, this country can reduce the amount of women living in poverty.