Content area
Full text
ABSTRACT
This paper reviews trends in "feminization" and "juvenilization" of poverty showing that the relative risks of poverty increased for women in the 1970s but decreased for working-age women in the early 1980s. Relative risks of poverty increased for children between the 1970s and 1990s particularly in comparison with the elderly. Four factors affect these trends: First, the increase in women's employment and decline in the gender wage gap enhanced the likelihood that women remained above the poverty level. Second, the decline in manufacturing employment and "family wage" jobs for men increased the likelihood that less-educated men (and their families) fell into poverty in the early 1980s. These two factors combined to halt the feminization of poverty among the working-age population. At the same time, a third trend, the increase in "nonmarriage," elevated the proportion of single parents who were young, never-married mothers and complicated the collection of child support from nonresident fathers. This tended to concentrate poverty in mother-child families. Finally, public transfers of income, especially Social Security, were far more effective in alleviating poverty among the elderly than among children, a factor dramatically increasing the "juvenilization" of poverty after 1970.
KEY WORDS: poverty, gender, children, inequality, family
Poverty in the United States is a serious problem for women and children particularly those in single-parent families. However, assessing trends in the "feminization" and "juvenilization" of poverty turns out to be a trickier business than it might at first seem. First, are "feminization" and "juvenilization" best assessed by trends in the percentage of the poverty population that is female (or juvenile), by the absolute poverty rates of women and children, or by the relative risks of poverty for different groups (i.e., men versus women, adults versus children)? Second, what factors are implicated in the heightened poverty levels of women and children, and what factors seem to be correlated with changes over time in their relative risks of poverty? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what are the effects of poverty, particularly for those who grow up poor? This chapter reviews the empirical evidence and research literature in an attempt to shed light on each of these questions.
TRENDS
The Feminization of Poverty: The Case of Adult Women
The term "feminization of poverty" was...