Feminization of Poverty

Abstract

The “feminization of poverty” has been a longstanding, if deeply contested, trope in gender and development (GAD) discourse since the mid‐1990s. This entry traces the origins of the term and provides a critical review of some of the key debates which have occurred around its theoretical assumptions and empirical bases. Particular attention is paid to methodological and data difficulties in substantiating trends in the “feminization of poverty,” to the problems of its purported links with a virtually ubiquitous increase in the number and share of households headed by women in global south regions, and to the quandaries presented by the “feminization” of poverty reduction programs nominally designed to change poverty's predominantly “female face.” Support for more gender‐sensitive, multidimensional approaches to poverty which go beyond income to embrace other factors relevant to women's disadvantage, such as time and power, is indicated to enhance empirical and conceptual robustness and policy responses alike.

Inovação ou progresso social? Uma análise dos fatores preditores para o avanço mundial da igualdade de gênero

“…Já a prevalência de H1 no modelo estatístico também lança luz sobre uma consequência direta da atual corporificação do capital, qual seja, o fenômeno cada vez mais crescente de feminização da pobreza (Bradshaw et al, 2018;Chant, 2020). Nesse sentido, questiona-se até que ponto o progresso social não fomenta uma maior equidade de gênero tão somente em razão de as mulheres constituírem o maior contingente populacional em vulnerabilidade e não porque recebem uma atenção diferenciada das atuais políticas de desenvolvimento praticadas pela maioria dos países (Madgavkar et al, 2020).…”

Innovation or social progress? An analysis of the predictors for worldwide advancement of gender equality

“…Conversely, the prevalence of H1 in the statistical model also sheds light on a direct consequence of the current embodiment of capital, namely the growing phenomenon of the feminisation of poverty (Bradshaw et al, 2018;Chant, 2020). In this sense, it is questionable whether social progress does not foster greater gender equality simply because women constitute the largest vulnerable population contingent and not because they receive differentiated attention from the current development policies practised by most countries (Madgavkar et al, 2020).…”