Women On Welfare

11 Pages 2797 Words

The percentage of women on welfare is staggering, whereas there are far fewer men relying on the system. Although the level of discrimination against women on welfare has decreased somewhat, it is still a major concern in comparison to men.
For many centuries women have had to rely on men for survival. In the early 1900’s,for example, women were married at a young age and were taught only how to clean house and take care of their husbands. Education was not part of a woman’s lifestyle. Today, however, little girls are now being taught to be independent educated women. This means that, we, as women do not have to rely on men to survive- or so that is what I believed until I found myself separated from my first husband.
I was living a comfortable lifestyle with three children. It was not until I saw my ex-husband’s money go out the door with him that I realized how dependant on him I was. With no education (I dropped out at 15) and no job, I found myself relying on social assistance and then onto mother’s allowance. My ex-husband did not pay his child support and even if he had of paid it; welfare would take it away from me because it is considered extra income. Once comfortable and living easy without having to worry about where my next meal was coming from, I was now living in poverty. I will discuss this more in detail later.
The differences between women and men on welfare are quite significant. My findings are alarming because of all the data that I have found shows that although women are more likely to be the single parent, they are more apt to rely on social assistance than the male single parent. As well, women, with or without children, are living in poverty far more often than males are.
The poverty rate among women who are receiving social assistance is high at 55 percent, whereas women who are not receiving social assistance, the poverty rate for non-elderly women are 17 percent. For unattached wo...