A problem of gendered injustice? Objective and subjective poverty among older women and men across European welfare regimes

Abstract

Using European Social Survey data, this article studies the prevalence of objective and subjective poverty among older women and men (60+ years) in 21 European countries. Objective poverty refers to whether one’s disposable income falls below the poverty line, whereas subjective poverty relates to the capacity to make ends meet. It analyzes gender differences in these two dimensions of poverty and the role of gender as an explanation to these phenomena while controlling for other individual-level variables as well as the role of welfare state regimes. The results show that older women are more exposed to objective poverty than men, and that female gender remains strongly and positively correlated with this kind of poverty even when controlling for other variables. They also show that other individual-level variables, such as partnership, paid work and education curbs objective poverty, while the type of welfare regime does not matter. As to subjective poverty, on the other hand, there is no significant association with female gender, nor with the type of welfare regime, while individual-level variables such as subjective health, partnership and paid work are negatively correlated with this dimension of poverty. Subjective poverty is somewhat more influenced by contextual factors than objective poverty although the type of welfare state regime is not significantly associated with subjective or objective poverty.