Women in poverty

As most of us know, feminism is a paradigm that takes note of the inequality and oppression that women face due to society’s patriarchal nature (Mullaly, 2007, p.168). With this being said, people in poverty also experience additional inequality and oppression due to their socioeconomic status. Topics such as unequal pay for equal work, single-parent families and domestic violence are all problems mentioned by feminists, and the effect they have on people in poverty will be explored.

One of the major contributions of feminism is the gain of equal rights to men. Besides the right to vote, the major advantage of these new rights was the opportunity to enter the workforce. As more and more women entered into paid work, one of the main criticisms of this new advantage was the fact that men were not picking up any of the traditional “women work” around the house, which created what was called the “second shift”.  This meant that women who now contributed to the household income still had to come home and do the majority, if not all of the childrearing and household chores (Walsh, 2003, p.16). But this is not the only disadvantage to being a woman in the workforce. On top of this, as mentioned by Mullaly (2007), “women still experience occupational segregation in many sectors of the labour force and receive lower earnings, benefits, and pensions” (p.161). This means that because men were traditionally expected to be the breadwinners, women are still not viewed as equals. Lower wages for women, especially in today’s society with high cost of living and the amount of unmarried or divorced women, paints a very dark picture. This contributes to the fact that women are one of the most susceptible groups to poverty (Ward, 2006, p.354). Because they are not given the amount of pay they should be and are the breadwinner of the household, they have more difficulties providing the necessities to support themselves.

            On that note, the ability for women to be in the workforce is a major advantage due to the amount of single-parent families in Canada. Not surprisingly, as mentioned by Mullaly (2007), “women head over 80 per cent of single-parent families” (p.161), which means that without feminism that 80 per cent would have had no income at all to support their family! Even with this contribution, it is still found that “many adolescent mothers live below the poverty line, since they have limited education and job skills”. It was found that female-headed families, whether adolescent or in adulthood, have a lower quality of life due to less financial support for a social life, housing being determined by level of income, and the fact that the majority of those single mothers have “dead-end” jobs. (Ward, 2006, p.234) This suggests that single-women will never win the battle against poverty due to not having the finances or time to improve education to get a well-paying career.

            The addition of a male figure for a woman living in poverty may also be a negative experience, since women are disproportionately the victims of male violence” (Mullaly, 2007, p.161). The awareness of domestic violence was another main contribution made by feminists. For women in poverty, the amount of male violence is even more frightening. Baker (2009) mentions that fifty percent of women in public housing reported being a victim of domestic violence (p.189), which is even more of an issue when you factor in how many incidents of domestic violence go unreported! The explanation (although never a good enough one) for this statistic is that men in public housing situations are more likely to abuse their partners because they face higher levels of stress from not being able to provide for their family (Baker, 2009, p.190). This means that on top of a lower quality of life due to being under the poverty line, these women are also in an abusive relationship. This double-burden makes a woman’s situation even more difficult than abuse or poverty alone, because most times a woman cannot get out of one bad situation without having to maintain the other. This leads to the dilemma of having to choose whether poverty or abuse is more bearable.

            The feminist movement made major improvements to the quality of life of women. The ability to be in the workforce, to vote, and even to choose how you want to live are aspects of our lives as modern women that we take for granted. Although feminists have made extensive progress over the years, more still needs to be done to continue to even out the playing field. Equal wages for equal work and the extinction of domestic violence are two major issues that should take priority. As for people in poverty, these two changes would have huge implications. Equal wages for equal pay would give women more financial stability to lift themselves out of poverty, as well as give them the resources to leave a dependant violent relationship. The government needs to take a feminist stance to the elimination of poverty to give this double-oppressed group the opportunities they need to reach their potential and give them the optimal quality of life they deserve.

Leah

References

Baker, M. (2009). Families: Changing Trends in Canada (6th Ed.). Toronto, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Mullaly, R. (2007). The new structural social work (3^rd Ed.). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Walsh, F. (2003). Normal Family Processes (3^rd Ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Ward, M. (2006). The Family Dynamic (4^th Ed.). Toronto, ON: Nelson.