About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

4 Yale J.L. & Feminism 73 (1991-1992)
The Feminization of Poverty: An Issue for the 90's

handle is hein.journals/yjfem4 and id is 79 raw text is: The Feminization of Poverty: An Issue for the 90's Audrey Rowet When I was asked to present at this conference, I had to think about it. As a practitioner, I work day in and day out thinking about issues of poverty from the city, state and national perspectives. Sometimes, in this work, I have found myself so consumed by the reality of deciding day-to-day policy and operating our programs, and so caught up in thinking through how to be more effective in how we address these problems, that I wondered whether I had the time or the energy to step back and share with you some issues that I think are very important. However, I must admit that taking the time to stop and think about these issues in preparation for coming here, and going through some of the research that is being done, and talking to some old friends who do poverty research was very, very helpful, and will help me when I take over the Department of Income Maintenance next week. As we look at the issues for the 90's, and particularly as we look at the agenda feminists need to be involved in, the feminization of poverty has to move from an issue that we think about and pay lip service to, to one that we are much more actively trying to understand and to address. The trend toward the feminization of poverty is real, and must be analyzed critically if it is to be reversed. During the past decade, foundations and federal, state and city governments have focused a lot of attention on the increase in poverty, particularly the increase among woman-maintained households. (I prefer that term to female heads of households.) Researchers have coined the phrase feminization of poverty to describe this trend. Diana Pearce, a feminist researcher who is now the director of the Women in Poverty Center in Washington, D.C., first introduced that concept in 1978,' based on her research, which clearly demonstrated a correlation between gender and poverty and the importance of gender in understanding poverty.2 I think in order to talk about poverty, we should start by talking about how we measure poverty. The Census Bureau's way of measuring poverty, as I'm t Audrey Rowe is the Commissioner of Income Maintenance for the State of Connecticut and was formerly the Human Resources Administrator for the City of New Haven. This piece was originally presented at the Conference, Feminism in the 90s: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice. 1. Diana M. Pearce, The Feminization of Poverty: Women, Work, and Welfare, 11 URB. & SOC. CHANGE REV. 28 (1978). 2. Id. Copyright 0 1991 by the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most