Feminizatin of Poverty

The “feminization of poverty” addresses the issue of gender hierarchy specifically gender specific division of labor, where women are the majority of unpaid laborers. Poverty is a global issue but I will focus on the reforms needed in The United States to reduce poverty. The needs of individual countries vary but the root of the “feminization of poverty” is the same across all cultures. There is a need for reforms geared toward immediate survival and reforms for social structural problems. All of the problems associated with women in poverty fall within two categories, economy and empowerment. Economy is more the formal sector’s arena and it focuses on implementing policies dedicated to eradicating inequalities in the economic structure. Empowerment, an informal tactic, has more to do with the individual’s ability to break away from social norms and gender roles to become more self-sufficient. Formal or informal strategies alone are insufficient to handle poverty levels among women. There must be a partnership between formal and informal politics to guarantee a noticeable change in poverty levels.

The question becomes why do women comprise such a large sector of the world’s population in poverty? Only by understanding the causes could we formulate strategies aimed at eradicating them. The main reason that women are poor stems from inequality in the social structure. Stereotypical gender roles are enforced from birth and follow women for the rest of their lives. Women are socialized to exhibit socially acceptable behaviors (Peterson and Runyan 34). The majority of women continue to be the ones that care for dependents, a type of work that is completely ignored and unrewarded by the public sector. This enforces the gender dichotomy of a woman’s expertise in the private sphere (Peterson and Runyan 38-39). Ultimately, it becomes exceedingly difficult for women to provide for themselves financially, in both the short and long term, because they have to care for dependents. The need for flexibility in the work schedule in order to cope with family responsibilities means putting up with the lesser paying jobs. The added financial burden of childcare and additional expenses forces women to either take part-time work or leave work altogether. Women living in poverty are often lack access to critical resources such as credit, education, and job training. Their basic needs such as health care and nutrition are not considered an important problem on our social radar. They often have no say in decision-making at home and feel helpless in the community. These women become caught in the cycle of poverty that only deepens the gender gap. They are denied access to resources and services that could change their situation. All these factors contribute to the widening gender gap and demonstrate the effects of poverty on women that men do not feel to the same degree. There are many false stereotypes attached to being poor women. The media often portrays lazy, unemployed “welfare moms” that spend government checks on frivolous items. This stereotype hinders women poverty from becoming a truly important issue on nation’s agenda. This also demonstrates that it is not so much as policy that needs to be changed as social structure.

The informal arena main focus should be empowering women through access to informational opportunities. Organizations could implement workshops dedicated to educating poor women about obtaining and using government aid to its maximum advantage. This particular strategy allows the women to have a sense of control over decisions that will affect their life. These organizations could ,on a smaller scale, help with some of the immediate relief that becomes a burden on the government. Affordable housing, job training, and basic need supplies are some fields that informal organizations could contribute their resources to reducing poverty. An inherent goal of all strategies should promote self-sufficiency and self-esteem. A mobilization of the women living in poverty to address issues specific to them could work on a formal and informal level. In the informal arena this poor people’s organization could create support mechanisms for women. This support group could also offer community education on rights around poverty and communication of success stories of women who have managed to overcome their own poverty. These informal strategies could change the consciousness of the poor women and possibly the public. A positive perspective of poverty and the people it affects could put the issue on the fore front of the nation’s agenda.

However the informal arena is not sufficient to address all of poverty, the informal strategies work on the principle of immediate gratification. The long term goal of reducing poverty cannot be adequately met by informal tactics because it works on too small of a scale. First, just as housework is often not recognized as work at