Poverty, Welfare, and Patriarchy: How Macro‐Level Changes in Social Policy Can Help Low‐Income Women

Abstract

A critical review of the current status of low-income women reveals how patriarchy, violence, and discrimination mitigates against their employment and contributes to their poverty. Myths that fuel prejudice against the poor have led to public policy and welfare legislation based on individualistic rather than structural assumptions about the causes of poverty. Research on the effects of welfare reform reinforces the conclusion that changes in social welfare and policy are necessary for income parity and improvement in the employment opportunities, access, and status of low-income women. A human-capital model and recommendations for macro-level changes in public policy and programming that address the systemic causes of women's poverty are presented.In every nation of the world, the burden of poverty falls most heavily on women and children. Welfare is a gender issue, but so is poverty. In the United States, 19.8 million or 57% of the 34.5 million people living in poverty are women, and 13.5 million or nearly 40% are children under age 18. Today there are significantly more poor families headed by single women than there were 30 years ago. In 1968, 35% of all poor families were headed by single women, but that figure was 53% in 1998 (U.S.

Household Heads Gender Comparison of Perceived Causes of Poverty in a South African Township

“…Therefore, these patterns are not consistent in building a solid hypothesis associated with perceptions of the causes of poverty across gender. In most societies, women hold low-control social roles and are, therefore, more dependent on external factors than are men (Rice, 2001). The finding of this study might be derived from the fact that it used the sample of female-headed households only.…”

“…Findings in research on performance evaluation suggest that gender differences in causal attributions result from any externality (situation) bias among women and/or internality bias among men may lead to gender difference in performance evaluation (Rice, 2001). Traditionally, females are considered incompetent, dependent and inferior to males (Wollie, 2009).…”

“…However, the position in turn hampers female self-enhancement, achievement motivation and an optimistic view of their futures than their male counterparts. In most societies, women hold low-control social roles and are more dependent on external factors than men (Rice, 2001). Culture, tradition and stereotypes have always contributed to the gender division of labour.…”

Occupational Therapy Services for Individuals Who Have Experienced Domestic Violence

“…The most recent USDOJ (2007) statistics from an analysis of reported and unreported family violence indicate that persons in households with annual incomes less than $7,500 (below the U.S. poverty threshold) have higher rates of assault than do persons in households with higher income levels. Furthermore, the data also indicate that social class appears to be inversely related to the severity of the violence; more severe domestic violence occurs against women within the lowest socioeconomic group (Bograd, 2005;Browne & Bassuk, 1997;Davies, 2008;Lyon, 2000Lyon, , 2002Rank, 2004;Rice, 2001). …”

A life of ease and immorality: Health professionals' constructions of mothering on welfare

“…Here neo-liberalism infiltrates the construction of welfare mothers through their lack of both their own paid employment and the family support of a paid worker (Skevik, 2005). Within this account, welfare recipients are portrayed as irresponsible mothers who are poor because of their unrestrained sexuality, and have failed to meet the ideal of marriage and the nuclear family (Kingfisher, 1999;Limbert & Bullock, 2005;Rice, 2001). Provision of welfare is understood to undermine the family and present lone motherhood as a lifestyle choice for young women (Fineman, 1991;Uttley, 2000).…”