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The Feminization of Poverty

© Nancy Coulter

Poverty and homelessness is a social ill which many of us are aware of, especially if we live in the inner city. This part of the population used to consist mainly of older, white males. However, the trend lately has been the complete opposite of that.

Female-headed househols increased from just over 20% of all households below the poverty level in 1960 to more than 50% in 1990. As a result, one in five children are now being raised in poverty. For most of those children it means that they will have very little chances to ever get out of the cycle of poverty.

The main reason for this increase seems to be the increase in unwed teenage mothers. On top of that, there has been an increase in divorces. Normally, the mother is given custody of the children. If the father does his part to help support the family, then things should be fine. Unfortunately, the term "deadbeat dad" is becoming all too common. Women are being left to raise their children alone, with no support from the father.

Many men might argue that women could easily work on their own and support the children that way. This may be true for a woman who has grown up and gotten some sort of education so that she had a marketable skill. The problem is that many of these women grew up at a point in time where single motherhood wasn't that common. These women were raised to believe that they would find their "prince charming" and spend the rest of their life at his side, raising his children - with him. No one ever told them that things may not work out with prince charming and they may have to take care of their family on their own.

Poverty has always been a problem in our society. So why should the increase in females who live below the poverty line be any worse than males living at that level? The problem is simple - women are the ones raising the children, our future. This isn't to say that men couldn't raise children. But the fact is that women are the ones who normally do the child rearing. We need to worry about out future. When they are being raised in conditions which don't promote growth and success, we need to be concerned and something needs to be done.

So when you are walking down the street in a crowded city and see a mother sitting on the corner with her two children, stop and think if that's really how you want our future to be brought up. One person can't change the world. However, they can change the life of another person. Maybe if we all took the time to help one other person in their life, our social ills may not be as bad.

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