Feminization Of Poverty

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The Feminization of Poverty


The majority of the 1.5 billion people living on 1 dollar a day or less are women. In addition, the gap between women and men caught in the cycle of poverty has continued to widen in the past decade, a phenomenon commonly referred to as "the feminization of poverty". Worldwide, women earn on average slightly more than 50 per cent of what men earn.

Women living in poverty are often denied access to critical resources such as credit, land and inheritance. Their labour goes unrewarded and unrecognized. Their health care and nutritional needs are not given priority, they lack sufficient access to education and support services, and their participation in decision-making at home and in the community are minimal. Caught in the cycle of poverty, women lack access to resources and services to change their situation.

The Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, identified the eradication of the persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women as one of the 12 critical areas of concern requiring special attention and action by the international community, governments and civil society.

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women discussed the issue of women and poverty at its fortieth session in 1996, and proposed further action to be taken by UN member states and the international community, including the mainstreaming of a gender perspective in all poverty eradication policies and programmes. Among the agreed conclusions of the session were measures aimed at policies to ensure that all women have adequate economic and social protection during unemployment, ill health, maternity, child-bearing, widowhood, disability and old age; and that women, men and society share responsibilities for child and other dependant care.


Women are the World's Poor

An important achievement of the Beijing Conference has been the recognition by ...