The Feminization of Poverty
However poverty is measured, women comprise a major and growing proportion of the world's poor today. This trend is known as the feminization of poverty. Poverty is especially a problem among older women and younger women with children. Worldwide, a third of all households are headed by women. Because women receive less income than men in all countries, and because they are so much more likely than men to have to bear the expenses of childrearing alone when a family is headed by one parent, it is not surprising that women aregenerally poorer than men.
In the United States, the trend toward the poor being primarily women and children began after World War II. According to information from the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2009, over 55% of all people living in poverty in the United States were female. This is largely due to the fact that single-parent households are over represented among the poor and are much more likely to be headed by women than by men. The problem ofpoverty in single-parent families is particularly acute, as childcare responsibilities often mean choosing between daycare expenses that make employment unprofitable and low-paid, part-time work that is more compatible with less expensive ways of organizing childcare, such as poolingwork and babysitting with friends or relatives. For many women, neither of these options proves successful, and the circumstances of single-parent life force them into dependence on the welfare system. Currently, about half of all women in poverty are more or less permanently reliant on public welfare or on the support of friends or relatives. As governments cut back on welfare benefits and other social services in their efforts to address the problem of soaring public debt, poor women are being hit much harder than other segments of society.