Feminization of Poverty Essay

Poverty has been going through a feminization process in the recent decades. The overwhelming majority of those in poverty and those affected by poverty have been women recently. The trend has been set by the thousand of working women that head a single parent household. These women work and work and still are barely able to support their family. There are also other things impacting the feminization of poverty. One issue that has had a huge impact is the mass incarceration across the country. The men that would otherwise be working to help support a family are in prison, and when they get out of prison, they either can’t get a job or they can’t find a place to live. This causes poverty to become even more feminized by taking away a large amount of male help, and not allowing the families that are reunited to get welfare. Another issue associated with the feminization of poverty is the simple fact that women get payed less for the same jobs as a man would. Purely on the basis of their sex, the women are doomed to make 77 cents to every man’s dollar. In addition to their gender, if a woman is of color, any color other than white, she will make even less. Hispanics for example can make as low as 72 cents to every man’s dollar. With the combination of all of these issues, women are continually held back by regulations and by circumstances that they can’t avoid. These are not all of the issues associated with the feminization of poverty, but these are several of the main ones.