WOMEN POVERTY

Women in poverty in the United States

Abstract

Poverty and women in the United States occurs mainly in women heads of households and their children. Poverty is a complex topic for it covers both a condition of living and the resulting psychological issues that emerge for poor women and their families. In order to examine these complexities, this article reviews the ways researchers and policy makers categorized women in poverty, beliefs regarding how people become poor, and governmental definitions of poverty. Since families living in poverty are mainly supported by governmental welfare programs, these programs as they affect the lives of women recipients are evaluated. Finally homelessness as an outcome of poverty is discussed.

Women in poverty in the United States

Definition of the problem

The literature on poverty and women focuses primarily on either gender or racial and ethnic group comparisons. Ethnic comparisons of women are primarily between White, African American, and Latinas. Few studies include Asian American or Native American women. Distinctions among ethnic groups of women are often not addressed in governmental reports. For example, a 1999 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on trends on the well-being of America's youth reports statistics by ethnic groups only.

Data are given for African American or Black, White, and Hispanic (people who may be of any race) persons. There are no subcategory distinctions to contribute to our understanding of the variability within ethnic groups. As a result, less information is known about Hispanic people who are Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, or from Central or South America. Similarly, within the racial category Black, no distinction is made between African American and Caribbean people. Whites are not distinguished between heritage groups such as Italian, Irish, or Russian. Ignoring these within-group distinctions can have several consequences. Policy makers may be less effective in developing programs to eliminate poverty. Or unique problems of the economic survival of particular groups become lost in these homogeneous categorizations. Overall, it is not possible to the track economic progress of the specific heritage groups (Farmer, 2002).

When the heterogeneity within ethnic groups is ignored, the actual trends in population growth are not monitored. While the United States still is predominately populated by Whites, this trend is slowly changing. For example, Martha Ozowa has estimated that by 2050 the U.S. population will be 52.5% White and 46.6% minorities: 22.5% Hispanic (Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican, and South and Central American); 14.4% Black (African American and Afro-Caribbean); 9.7% Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and Hawaiian or part Hawaiian) and Pacific Islanders; and 0.9% American Indian, Eskimos, and Aleuts. These figures do not include mixed-race people, a growing population for whom little information is known. The federal government is beginning to recognize the importance of collecting this information as a way to increase understanding of the social conditions experienced by these groups of people. Most recently, in the 2000 census, a better effort was made to gather data about people within and between ethnic and racial group categories (Farmer, ...