Climate change and poverty are deeply intertwined because climate change disproportionally affects poor people in low-income communities and developing countries
around the world. Those in poverty have a higher chance of experiencing
the ill-effects of climate change due to the increased exposure and
vulnerability. Vulnerability represents the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change including climate variability and extremes.
Climate change highly influences health, economy, and human rights which affects environmental inequities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) Fourth National Climate Assessment Report found that low-income
individuals and communities are more exposed to environmental hazards
and pollution and have a harder time recovering from the impacts of
climate change. For example, it takes longer for low-income communities to be rebuilt after natural disasters. According to the United Nations Development Programme, developing countries suffer 99% of the casualties attributable to climate change.
Climate change raises some climate ethical
issues, as the least 50 developed countries of the world account for an
imbalanced 1% contribution to the worldwide emissions of greenhouse gasses which are theorized to be attributable to global warming. Climate anddistributive justice questions are central to climate change policy options. Many of the policy tools are often employed to solve environmental problems such as cost-benefit analysis;
however, such tools usually adequately abstain from dealing with such
issues because they often ignore questions of just distribution and the
environmental effects on human rights.
Poverty Percentage World Map
The concept of 'atmospheric colonization' refers to the observation
that 92% of accumulated greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to
countries from the Global North, comprising 19% of global population,
while only 8% of emissions are attributable to countries from the Global
South that will bear the heaviest consequences of increasing global
temperatures.
A 2020 World Bank paper estimated that between 32 million to 132 million additional people will be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 due to climate change. [[DJS -- How has extreme poverty been changing in recent history, and why? --]]
Connection to poverty
The cycle of poverty
exacerbates the potential negative impacts of climate change. This
phenomenon is defined when poor families become trapped in poverty for
at least three generations, have limited to no resources access, and are
disadvantaged in means of breaking the cycle.
While in rich countries, coping with climate change has largely been a
matter of dealing with longer, hotter summers, and observing seasonal
shifts; for those in poverty, weather-related disasters, bad harvest, or
even a family member falling ill can provide crippling economic shocks.
Besides these economic shocks, the widespread famine, drought, and potential humanistic shocks could affect the entire nation. High levels of poverty and low levels of human development
limit the capacity of poor households to manage climate risks. With
limited access to formal insurance, low incomes, and meager assets, poor
households have to deal with climate-related shocks under highly
constrained conditions.
Relationship to environmental racism
As
the climate has changed progressively over the past several decades,
there has been a collision between environmental racism and global climate change.
The overlap of these two phenomena, many argue, has disproportionately
affected different communities and populations throughout the world due
to disparities in socio-economic status. This is especially evident in
the Global South where, for example, byproducts of global climate change
such as increasingly frequent and severe landslides resulting from more
heavy rainfall events in Quito, Ecuador,
force people to also deal with profound socio-economic ramifications
like the destruction of their homes or even death. Countries such as
Ecuador often contribute relatively little to climate change in terms of
carbon dioxide emissions but have far fewer resources to ward off the
negative localized impacts of climate change. This issue occurs
globally, where nations in the global south bear the burden of natural
disasters and weather extremes despite contributing little to the global
carbon footprint.
While people living in the Global South have typically been
impacted most by the effects of climate change, people of color in the
Global North also face similar situations in several areas. The issues
of climate change and communities that are in a danger zone are not
limited to North America or the United States either. Environmental
racism and climate change coincide with one another. Rising seas affect poor areas such as Kivalina, Alaska, and Thibodaux, Louisiana, and countless other places around the globe.
Impacts of environmental racism due to climate change become particularly evident during climate disaster. During the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, scholars have analyzed the effects of environmental racism on the unequal death rate between races during this crisis.
Direct impacts of this phenomenon can be observed through the lack of
adequate warning and the failure to utilize pre-existing cooling centers
which disadvantaged impoverished groups, and caused particularly
devastating effects in Chicago's poorest areas. With the number of
climate disasters increasing dramatically over the past 50 years, the impacts of environmental racism has increased, and social movements calling for environmental justice have grown in turn.
Reversing development
Climate change is globally encompassing and can reverse development in some areas in the following ways.
Agricultural production and food security
Microorganisms and Climate Change
There has been considerable research comparing the interrelated processes of climate change on agriculture. Climate change affects rainfall, temperature, and water availability for agriculture in vulnerable areas.
It also affects agriculture in several ways including productivity,
agricultural practices, environmental effects, and distribution of rural
space.
Additional numbers affected by malnutrition could rise to 600 million
by 2080. Climate change could worsen the prevalence of hunger through
direct negative effects on production and indirect impacts on purchasing
powers.
Water insecurity
Of
the 3 billion growth in population projected worldwide by the mid-21st
century, the majority will be born in countries already experiencing water shortages.
As the overall climate of the earth warms, changes in the nature of
global rainfall, evaporation, snow, and runoff flows will be affected. Safe water sources are essential for survival within a community. Manifestations of the projected water crisis include inadequate access to safe drinking water for about 884 million people as well as inadequate access to water for sanitation and water disposal for 2.5 billion people.
With a population ranging between 198 to 210 million people in Nigeria,
existing sanitation and water infrastructural facilities remain
inadequate with 2.2billion people lacking access to safe water and 4.2
billion lacking safe sanitations both in the rural and urban areas.
Rising sea levels and exposure to climate disasters
Sea levels could rise rapidly with accelerated ice sheet disintegration.
Global temperature increases of 3–4 degrees C could result in 330
million people being permanently or temporarily displaced through
flooding. Warming seas will also fuel more intense tropical storms. The destruction of coastal landscapes exacerbates the damage done by this increase in storms. Wetlands, forests, and mangroves have been removed for land development. These features usually slow runoff, storm surges,
and prevent debris from being carried by flooding. Developing over
these areas has increased the destructive power of floods and makes
homeowners more susceptible to extreme weather events. In some areas, such as coastal properties, real estate prices go up because of ocean access and housing scarcity, in part caused by homes being destroyed during storms. Wealthy homeowners have more resources to rebuild their homes and have better job security,
which encourages them to stay in their communities following extreme
weather events. Highly unstable areas, such as slopes and delta regions, are sold to lower-income families at a cheaper price point. After extreme weather events, Impoverished
people have a difficult time finding or maintaining a job and
rebuilding their homes. These challenges force many to relocate in
search of job opportunities and housing.
Ecosystems and biodiversity
Coral Bleaching of Coral Reefs in Hawaii
Climate change is already transforming ecological systems.
Around one-half of the world's coral reef systems have suffered
bleaching as a result of warming seas. In addition, the direct human
pressures that might be experienced include overfishing which could lead to resource depletion, nutrient, and chemical pollution and poor land-use practices such as deforestation and dredging. Also, climate change may increase the number of arable land
in high-latitude regions by reduction of the number of frozen lands. A
2005 study reports that temperature in Siberia has increased three
degrees Celsius on average since 1960, which is reportedly more than in
other areas of the world.
A direct effect is an increase in temperature-related illnesses and
deaths related to prolonged heat waves and humidity. Climate change
could also change the geographic range of vector-borne, specifically mosquito-borne diseases such as malariadengue fever exposing new populations to the disease.
Because a changing climate affects the essential ingredients of
maintaining good health: clean air and water, sufficient food, and
adequate shelter, the effects could be widespread and pervasive. The
report of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health points out
that disadvantaged communities are likely to shoulder a
disproportionate share of the burden of climate change because of their
increased exposure and vulnerability to health threats. Over 90 percent of malaria and diarrhea deaths are borne by children aged 5 years or younger, mostly in developing countries.
Other severely affected population groups include women, the elderly,
and people living in small island developing states and other coastal
regions, mega-cities, or mountainous areas.
Aspects of Climate Change on Human Health
Likely Relative Impact on Health Outcomes of the Components of Climate Change
Health Outcome
change in mean
temperature
extreme events
rate of change
of climate
variable
day-night
difference
Heat-related deaths and illness
+++
+
Physical and psychological trauma
due to disasters
++++
Vector-borne diseases
+++
++
+
++
Non-vector-borne infectious diseases
+
+
Food availability and hunger
++
+
++
Consequences of sea level rise
++
++
+
Respiratory effects:
-air pollutants
-pollens, humidity
+
++
++
+
Population displacement
++
+
+
++++= great effect; += small effect; empty cells indicate no known relationship.
In June 2019, United Nations Special RapporteurPhilip Alston
warned of a "climate apartheid" where the rich pay to escape the
effects of climate change while the rest of the world suffers,
potentially undermining basic human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. When Superstorm Sandy struck in 2012, he recounts, most people in New York City were left without power, while the Goldman Sachs headquarters had a private generator and protection by "tens of thousands of its own sandbags".
Security impacts
The concept of human security and the effects that climate change may have on it will become increasingly important as the affects become more apparent.
Some effects are already evident and will become very clear in the
human and climatic short-run (2007–2020). They will increase and others
will manifest themselves in the medium term (2021–2050); whilst in the
long run (2051–2100), they will all be active and interacting strongly
with other major trends.
There is the potential for the end of the petroleum economy for many
producing and consuming nations, possible financial and economic crisis,
a larger population of humans, and a much more urbanized humanity – far
in excess of the 50% now living in small to very large cities. All these processes will be accompanied by the redistribution of the population nationally and internationally.
Such redistributions typically have significant gender dimensions; for
example, extreme event impacts can lead to male out migration in search
of work, culminating in an increase in women-headed households – a group
often considered particularly vulnerable.
Indeed, the effects of climate change on impoverished women and
children is crucial in that women and children, in particular, have
unequal human capabilities.
Infrastructure impacts
The potential effects of climate change and the security of infrastructure
will have the most direct effect on the poverty cycle. Areas of
infrastructure effects will include water systems, housing and
settlements, transport networks, utilities, and industry.
Infrastructure designers can contribute in three areas for improving
the living environment for the poor, in building design, in settlement
planning and design as well as in urban planning.
The National Research Council
has identified five climate changes of particular importance to
infrastructure and factors that should be taken into consideration when
designing future structures. These factors include increases in very hot
days and heat waves, increases in Arctic temperatures, rising sea levels, increases in intense precipitation events, and increases in hurricane intensity. Heat waves affect communities that live in traditionally cooler areas because many of the homes are not equipped with air conditioning units. Rising sea levels
can be devastating for poor countries situated near the ocean and in
delta regions, which experience increasingly overwhelming storm damage.
In parts of eastern Caribbean nations, almost 60 percent of the homes were constructed without any building regulations. Many of these endangered populations are also affected by an increase in flooding in locations that lack adequate drainage. In 1998, close to 200 million people were affected by flooding in China’s Yangtze River Valley; and in 2010, flooding in Pakistan affected 20 million people.
These issues are made worse for people living in lower income areas and
force them to relocate at a higher rate than other economic groups.
In areas where poverty is prevalent and infrastructure is
underdeveloped, climate change produces a critical threat to the future
development of that country. Reports of a study done on ten
geographically and economically diverse countries show how nine out of
ten countries revealed an inability to develop infrastructures and its
expensive maintenance due to the influence of climate change and cost.
Nuclear power
plants provide clean, reliable energy to over 31 countries globally and
is the world’s second-largest source of low-carbon power. India, China, and South Korea
have utilized nuclear energy to develop advanced, high-energy
economies. In contrast, developing countries with emerging economies
often face problems in financing renewable energy sources, they are
forced to rely on fossil fuel-based energy sources.
The support of nuclear power for energy generation is growing as an
option to combat climate change in developing countries. These nuclear
power plants have the potential to contribute to energy security and
reduce the need for fossil fuels in these areas.
Adaptation efforts
Adaptation to global warming involves actions to tolerate the effects of global warming. Collaborative research from the Institute of Development Studies
draws links between adaptation and poverty to help develop an agenda
for pro-poor adaptation that can inform climate-resilient poverty
reduction. Adaptation to climate change will be "ineffective and
inequitable if it fails to learn and build upon an understanding of the
multidimensional and differentiated nature of poverty and
vulnerability".
Poorer countries tend to be more seriously affected by climate change,
yet have reduced assets and capacities with which to adapt. One can see this effect by comparing outcomes between Bangladesh and The United States following two severe storms. In the United States, Hurricane Andrew killed 23 people when it made landfall in 1992; however, one year before, in Bangladesh, a tropical cyclone killed approximately 100,000 people. Bangladesh, having a poorer population, was less prepared for the storm; and the country lacked sufficient weather forecasting systems needed to predict meteorological events. After the storm, Bangladesh required assistance from the international community
because it didn’t possess the funds needed to recover. As events like
these increase in their frequency and severity, a more proactive
approach is needed.
This has led to more activities to integrate adaptation within
development and poverty reduction programs. The rise of adaptation as a
development issue has been influenced by concerns around minimizing
threats to progress on poverty reduction, notably the Millennium Development Goals,
and by the injustice of impacts that are felt hardest by those who have
done least to contribute to the problem, framing adaptation as an
equity and human rights issue.
Regional effects
Regional
effects from global climate change varies from country to country. Many
countries have different approaches to how they adapt to global climate
change versus others. Bigger countries with more resources do not react
the same as a country with less resources to use. Urgency to fix the
problem is not present until the effect of global climate change is felt
directly. Bangladesh is just one of the many examples of people being
affected because they are not properly prepared to face global climate.
Workers in the agriculture field in these countries specifically are
effected more than others but the extent to how much each agriculture
worker is effected varies from region to region.
A country that exemplifies the inequality that is created due to varying affects in different regions by climate change is Nigeria.
Nigeria is a country that mainly relies on oil as its main money
generator, but is being affected by climate change and affecting the
lower class workers such as farmers in their every day life. Lack of
climate change information along with overprice land cost and government
irresponsibleness towards climate change adaption continues to
constrain farmers in Nigeria. A country supported by agricultural would
take more action in order to combat climate change. Its economic value
would be too high not to put more effort into fighting climate change.
Since it’s not a priority for the wealthier class in Nigeria, lower
class people directly suffer the effects of climate change in Nigeria
more.
Nigeria along with the rest of Africa is in danger of being
affected by climate change the most. According to author Ignatius A.
Madu research, the IPCC
has declared Africa a high vulnerable area based on its high exposure,
and lack of adaptability to global climate change.(IPCC 2007) It will
effect the economy as well as social system in Africa if it is not
addressed the way it should be. A country with so many natural resources
such as Africa will lose those resources over time and will be effected
harder than most regions of the world if climate change is not
addressed with urgency.
Lower class workers feel the effects differently region to region
of climate change but the effects in some of these countries are not as
devastating due to better adaption methods than others in different
countries and regions. Located in South Asia is the country Sri Lanka
that struggles with global climate change, but is doing more to combat
it than others. The country Sri Lanka
has now started to investigate farm level adaptation to climate change
by observing smaller farming communities in Sri Lanka. These farmers use
their personal experiences and gained knowledge to fight global climate
change. They have emphasized managing non-climatic elements which they
have no control over and this has helped them adapt faster than most
farming communities to climate change. Climate change has caused these
farmers efficiency to increase. This increase gives them a greater
chance of not being effected by climate change too much. It also shows
how social networks can effect adaption efforts. When more people take a
issue serious the response will be greater. Sri Lanka depends on
agriculture goods to keep their economy stable and many people depend on
it. Adaption efforts in Sri Lanka shows how the response from society
can dictate the level of importance that people see a issue at.
Understanding of the way people process information is just as
important as knowing the information needed to combat socio-economic,
cognitive and normative aspects with in communities. Unlike Nigeria,
studies have been ran and tested by the Sri Lanka government on how to
adapt to climate change which is helping them not be completely
defenseless against global climate change. Countries like Sri Lanka who
have a government who depend on agricultural exports to sustain part of
the government sure completely different response to combating climate
change unlike places like Nigeria. When the issue affects those of the
top adaption will happen with the urgency. This war cause approaches the
climate change to look different until we are all affected equally.
Adaption efforts have to be collective or we will not fix the worldwide
problem or climate change in poverty.
Proposed policy challenges
The most difficult policy challenge is related to distribution.
While this is a potentially catastrophic risk for the entire globe, the
short and medium-term distribution of the costs and benefits will be
far from uniform.
Distribution challenge is made particularly difficult because richer
nations who have largely caused the problem are not going to be those
who suffer the most in the short term. The poorest nations are the most
vulnerable to greenhouse gas emissions; although they did not and still
are not significant contributors to it.
Feminization of poverty refers to a trend of increasing inequality in living standards between men and women due to the widening gender gap in poverty.
This phenomenon largely links to how women and children are
disproportionately represented within the lower socioeconomic status
community in comparison to men within the same socioeconomic status.
Causes of the feminization of poverty include the structure of family
and household, employment, sexual violence, education, climate change,
femonomics and health. The traditional stereotypes of women remain
embedded in many cultures restricting income opportunities and community
involvement for many women. Matched with a low foundation income, this
can manifest to a cycle of poverty and thus an inter-generational issue.
Entrepreneurship is usually perceived as the cure-all solution
for deprivation depletion. Advocates assert that it guides to job
design, higher earnings, and lower deprivation prices in the towns
within it happens. Others disagree that numerous entrepreneurs are
generating low-capacity companies helping regional markets.
This term was originated in the US, towards the end of the twentieth century and maintains prominence as a contested international phenomenon.
Some researchers describe these issues as prominent in some countries
of Asia, Africa and areas of Europe. Women in these countries are
typically deprived of income, employment opportunities and physical and
emotional help putting them at the highest risk of poverty. This
phenomenon also differs between religious groups, dependent on the focus
put on gender roles and how closely their respective religious texts
are followed.
Feminisation of poverty is primarily measured using three
international indexes. These indexes are the Gender-related
Developmental Index, Gender Empowerment Measure and the Human Poverty
Index. These indexes focus on issues other than monetary or financial
issues. These indexes focus on gender inequalities, standard of living
and highlight the difference between human poverty and income poverty.
History
The concept of the 'feminization of poverty' dates back to the 1970s and became popular in the 1990s through some United Nations documents.
It became a prominent in popular society after a study focusing on
gender patterns in the evolution of poverty rates in the United States
was released.
The feminization of poverty is a relative concept based on a
women-men comparison. For instance, feminisation of poverty is if
poverty in a society is distinctly reduced among men and is only
slightly reduced among women.
Definitions
Feminization
of poverty is a largely contested idea with a multitude of meanings and
layers. Medeiros M, Costa J (2008) notes that feminization of poverty
links to widening gaps in quality of life between men and women, while
he also touches on the gap between male and female household roles.
Medeiros M, Costa J (2008) likewise depicts the escalating role that
gender discrimination has in determining poverty. For instance, an
increase of wage discrimination
between males and females which can also exacerbates poverty among
women and men of all types of families. This can be understood as a
feminization of poverty because it denotes the relation between the
biases against women and a rise in poverty. In numerous cases, such
changes in the causes of poverty will result in one of the types of the
feminization of poverty, that is, the relative changes in the poverty
levels of women and female-headed households.
The concept also served to illustrate the many social and
economic factors contributing to women's poverty, including the
significant gender pay gap between women and men.
The term originates in the US and its prominence as international phenomenon is contested.
The proportion of female-headed households whose incomes fall below the
"poverty line" has been broadly adopted as a measure of women's
poverty.
In many countries, household consumption and expenditure surveys show a
high incidence of female-headed households among the "poor," defined as
those whose incomes fall below the poverty line.
There are two assumptions underlying income-based measures of poverty according to Bessell S (2010). First, there is that tendency to equate income with the ability to control income.
While women may control earned income, the limits on poor women's
financial sovereignty have been well demonstrated. An income-based
measure may hide the extent and nature of poverty when women earn an
income but have no control over those earnings.
While the question of who controls income is a delicate matter for
women, it is also relevant to the position and well-being of men.
Societies that place upon individuals a heavy communal, kinship or
clan-based obligation may end in both women and men having limited
control over individual income.
Second, is the assumption that income creates equal access and generates equal benefits.
Access to education illustrates the point. While lack of financial
resources may result in low enrollment or high drop-out rates among poor
children, social values around the role of women and the importance of
formal education for girls are likely to be more meaningful in
demonstrating the difference between male and female enrolment rates.
Causes
Factors
that place women at high risk of poverty include change of family
structure, gender wage gaps, women's prevalence in low-paid occupations,
a lack of work-family supports, and the challenges involved in
accessing public benefits. Feminisation of poverty is a problem which may be most severe in parts of South Asia, and may also differ by social class.
Although low income is the major cause, there are many interrelated
facets of this problem. Lone mothers are usually at the highest risk for
extreme poverty because their income is insufficient to rear children.
The image of a "traditional" woman and a traditional role still
influences many cultures in today's world and is still not in full
realization that women are essential part of the economy. In addition,
income poverty lowers their children's possibilities for good education
and nourishment. Low income is a consequence of the social bias women
face in trying to obtain formal employment, which in turn deepens the cycle of poverty. Beyond income, poverty manifests in other dimensions such as time poverty and capability deprivations.
Poverty is multidimensional, and therefore economic, demographic, and
socio-cultural factors all overlap and contribute to the establishment
of poverty. It is a phenomenon with multiple root causes and manifestations.
Single mother households
Single mother households
are critical in addressing feminization of poverty and can be broadly
defined as households in which there are female headships and no male
headships. Single mother households are at the highest risk of poverty for women due to lack of income and resources.
There is a continuing increase of single mother households in the
world, which results in higher percentages of women in poverty. Single mothers are the poorest women in society, and their children tend to be disadvantaged in comparison to their peers.
Different factors can be taken into account for the rise in the number
of female headship in households. While never-married heads of household
are also at economic risk, changes of family structure, particularly divorce, are the major cause of initial spells of poverty among female-headed households. When men become migrant workers,
women are left to be the main caretaker of their homes. Those women who
have the opportunity to work usually don't get better jobs with a
furthered education. They are left with jobs that don't offer financial
sustainability or benefits. Other factors such as illnesses and deaths of husbands lead to an increase in single mother households in developing countries.
Female headed households are most susceptible to poverty because
they have fewer income earners to provide financial support within the
household.
According to a case study in Zimbabwe, households headed by widows have
an income of approximately half that of male-headed households, and de facto female headed households have about three-quarters of the income of male headed households. Additionally, single mother households lack critical resources in life, which worsens their state of poverty.
They do not have access to the opportunities to attain a decent
standard of living along with basic needs such as health and education. Single mother households relate to gender inequality issues as women are more susceptible to poverty and lack essential life needs in comparison to men.
Parenting in poverty ridden conditions can cause emotional instability for a child and their relationship with a single mother.
Many factors contribute to becoming impoverished. Some of these
factors are more prevalent in the lives of single mothers. When
demographic attributes of single mothers are surveyed, a few factors
showed up in higher rates. Marital status (divorced or widowed),
education, and race correlated strongly with levels of poverty for
single mothers. Specifically, very few mothers on the poverty line had a college degree and were having to "work to make ends meet".
Not only do these demographic attributes affect parenting in poverty,
emotional attributes provided an instability as well when viewed by Dr.
Bloom. Mothers have been noted as the "caregivers" or "nurturer" of
families. Some stereotypical things that are expected of mothers are
harder to provide in a low-income household when a mother is the main
provider. Dr. Bloom's example of a stereotypical mother job was bringing
treats to school on birthdays and expected to go to parent teacher
conferences.
A researcher, Denise Zabkiewicz, surveyed single mothers in poverty and
measured rates of depression over time. Since recent studies in 2010
had brought the idea that work was beneficial for mental health,
Zabkiewicz thought to research if jobs were mentally beneficial to
poverty line single mothers. Those results concluded to be true;
mothers' rates of depression were significantly lower when one held a
stable, long-term job.
The likelihood of getting a full-time job decreases with certain
factors. When these certain factors were surveyed in single moms they
occurred at higher rates: co-inhabiting, college degree, and use of
welfare.
All of these factors are ones that the researchers, Brian Brown and
Daniel Lichter, identified as contributing to single mothers' poverty.
Employment
"Unemployable uterus", a graffito in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Employment opportunities are limited for women worldwide.
The ability to materially control one's environment by gaining equal
access to work that is humanizing and allows for meaningful
relationships with other workers is an essential capability.
Employment impacts go beyond financial independence. Employment
establishes higher security and real world experience which elevates
regard within families settings and increases bargaining positions for
women. Though there has been major growth in women's employment, the
quality of the jobs still remains deeply unequal. Teenage motherhood is a factor that corresponds to poverty.
There are two kinds of employment: formal and informal. Formal
employment is government regulated and workers are insured a wage and
certain rights. Informal employment takes place in small, unregistered
enterprises. It is generally a large source of employment for women.
The burden of informal care work falls predominantly on women, who work
longer and harder in this role than men. This affects their ability to
hold other jobs and change positions, the hours they can work, and their
decision to give up work. However, women who have University degrees or
other forms of higher learning tend to stay in their jobs even with
caring responsibilities, which suggests that the human capital from this
experience causes women to feel opportunity costs when they lose their
employment.
Having children has also historically affected women's choice to stay
employed. While this "child-effect" has significantly decreased since
the 1970s, women's employment is currently decreasing. This has less to
do with child-rearing and more with a poor job market for all women,
mothers and non-mothers alike.
Sexual violence
A form of sexual violence on the rise in the United States is human trafficking. Poverty can lead to increased trafficking due to more people on the streets.
Women who are impoverished, foreign, socially deprived, or at other
disadvantages are more susceptible to being recruited into trafficking.
Many laws stated in Kelsey Tumiel's dissertation, have recently been
made to try to combat the phenomenon, but it is predicted that human
trafficking will surpass illegal drug trafficking amounts in the US.
Women that are victims of these sexual violence acts have a difficult
time escaping the life due to abuse of power, organised crime, and
insufficient laws to protect them. There are more people current enslaved in trafficking than there were during the African slave trade.
"Branding" of human trafficking brings awareness to the issue claims
Tam Mai, the author. This allows for public assertion and intervention. A
claim made in Tam Mai's article states that reducing poverty may thus
lead to a decrease in trafficking from the streets.
Education
Women and girls have limited access to basic education in developing countries. This is due to strong gender discrimination and social hierarchies in these countries. Approximately one quarter of girls in the developing world do not attend school.
This impedes a woman's ability to make informed choices and achieve
goals. Enabling female education leads to the reduction of household
poverty. Higher education is a major key to reducing women's poverty.
The limited number of girls who are enrolled in education in developing countries have a higher drop out rate than boys. This is caused by the high rape and sexual assault rates, which can lead to an unwanted pregnancy,
and male prioritisation of education. Males will be receiving an
education while females are learning domestic skills, including
cleaning, cooking and looking after children.
There are extremely high levels of claims of professional misconduct,
usually in the terms of sexual favours by females for grades. Because of
sexual harassment by students and lecturers, there is a large
inequality of higher education for females.
Climate change
Women are more likely to be poor, and to be responsible for the care of poor children, than men.
Approximately 70 percent of the world's poor are women; rural women
developing countries are among the most disadvantaged groups on the
planet.
They are therefore unlikely to have the necessary resources to cope
with the changes brought by climate change, and very likely to suffer a
worsening of their everyday conditions. Poor women are more likely to be
hurt or killed by natural disasters and extreme weather events than
men.
There is also evidence to suggest that when households experience food
shortages, women tend to go without so that their children may eat, with
all the health implications this brings for them. Since poverty and climate change
are closely linked, the poorest and most disadvantaged groups often
depend on climate-sensitive livelihoods like agriculture, which makes
them disproportionately vulnerable to climate change. These groups lack the resources required to weather severe climatic effects like better houses and drought-resistant crops.
This diminished adaptive capacity makes them even more vulnerable,
pushing them to take part in unsustainable environmental practices such
as deforestation in order to maintain their well-being.
The extent to which people are impacted by climate change is partially a
function of their social status, power, poverty, and access to and
control over resources.
Women are more vulnerable to the influences of climate change since
they make up the bulk of the world's poor and are more dependent for
their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate
change. Limited mobility combined with unequal access to resources and
to decision-making processes places women in rural areas in a position
where they are disproportionately affected by climate change. There are three main arguments in association to women and climate change.
Firstly, that women need special attention because they are the poorest
of the poor; secondly, because they have a higher mortality rate during
natural disasters caused by climate change and thirdly because women
are more environmentally conscious.
While the first two refer mainly to the women in the South, the last is
especially apparent in the literature on gender and climate change in
the North.
The feminization of poverty has been used to illustrate differences
between male and female poverty in a given context as well as changes in
male and female poverty over time. Typically, this approach has fed the
perception that female-headed households, however, defined, tend to be
poorer than other households.
Women are clearly more disadvantaged than men by poor household
infrastructure or the lack of piped water and less-consuming energy
sources.
Femonomics
In addition to earning less, women may encounter "Femonomics", or gender of money, a term created by Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW, to reflect many of the inequities women face that increase their likelihood of suffering from financial difficulties.
The image of a "traditional" woman and a traditional role still
influences many cultures in today's world and is still not in full
realisation that women are essential part of the economy. Women have unique healthcare problems/access problems related to reproduction increasing both their healthcare costs and risks. Research also shows that females tend to live five years longer on average than men.
The death of a spouse is an important determinant of female old-age
poverty, as it leaves women in charge of the finances. However, women
are more likely to be financially illiterate and thus have a harder time
knowing how to manage their money.
In 2009 Gornick et al. found that older women (over 60)
were typically much wealthier than their national average in Germany,
US, UK, Sweden and Italy (data from 1999–2001). In the US their wealth
holdings were four times the national median.
Women in poverty have reduced access to health care services and resources.
Being able to have good health, including reproductive health, be
adequately nourished, and have proper shelter can make an enormous
difference to their lives.
Gender inequality in society prevents women from utilizing care
services and therefore puts women at risk of poor health, nutrition, and
severe diseases. Women in poverty are also more vulnerable to sexual
violence and risk of HIV/AIDS,
as they are less able to defend themselves from influential people who
might sexually abuse them. HIV transmission adds to the stigma and
social risk for women and girls.
Other ailments such as malnutrition and parasite burden can weaken the
mother and create a dangerous environment, making sex, birth, and
maternal care riskier for poor women. In Korea poor health is a key factor in household poverty.
Women as a solution to poverty
Due
to financial aid programs for impoverished families assuming only women
to be responsible for the maintenance of a household and caring for
children, the burden may fall on women to ensure this financial aid is
properly managed. Such programs also tend to assume that women all have
the same social standing and needs, even though this is not the case.
This effect is exacerbated by the increased number of NGOs targeting
solely female development. Women are expected to maintain the household
as well as lift the family out of poverty, responsibilities which can
add to the burden of poverty that females face in developing nations. In many areas, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs
provide direct financial assistance to women with the goal of lifting
them out of poverty, but they often end up limiting women's
income-earning potential. The programs typically expect women to be
responsible for the health and educational outcomes of their children,
as well as require them to complete other program activities that don't
allow them the time to pursue vocational or educational opportunities
that would result in higher income-earning potential.
Forms of poverty
Decision-making power
Decision-making
power is central to the bargaining position of women within the
household. It is how women and men make decisions that affect the entire
household unit. However, women and men often have very different
priorities when it comes to determining what is most important for the
family.
Factors that determine which member of the household has the most power
in decision-making vary across cultures, but in most countries there is extreme gender inequality. Men of the household usually
have the power to determine what choices are made towards women's
health, their ability to visit friends and family, and household
expenditures.
The ability to make choices for their own health affects both women and
children's health. How household expenditures are decided affects
women and children's education, health, and well-being. Women's freedom
of mobility affects their ability to provide for their own needs as well
as for the needs of their children.
Gender discrimination within households is often rooted in patriarchal biases against the social status of women.
Major determinants of the household bargaining power include control of
income and assets, age, and access to and level of education. As
women's decision-making power increases, the welfare of their children
and the family in general benefits. Women who achieve greater education
are also more likely to worry about their children's survival,
nutrition, and school attendance.
Lack of income is a principal reason for women's risk of poverty.
Income deprivation prevents women from attaining resources and
converting their monetary resources into socioeconomic status. Not only
does higher income allow greater access to job skills; obtaining more
job skills raises income as well. As women earn less income than men,
and struggle to access public benefits. They are deprived of basic
education and health care, which eventually becomes a cycle to
debilitate women's ability to earn higher income.
Energy poverty
Energy poverty is defined as lacking access to the affordable sustainable energy service. Geographically, it is unevenly distributed in developing and developed countries.
In 2015, there are estimated 1.2 billion people have no access to
electricity, with approximate 95% distributed in Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa.
In developing countries, poor women and girls living in the rural
areas are significantly affected by energy poverty, because they are
usually responsible for providing the primary energy for households.
In developed countries, old women living alone are mostly affected by
energy poverty due to the low income and high cost of energy service.
Even though energy access is an important climate change adaptation
tool especially for maintaining health (i.e. access to air
conditioning, information etc.), a systematic review published in 2019
found that research does not account for these effects onto vulnerable
populations like women.
Lack of assets
According to Martha Nussbaum,
one central human functional capability is being able to hold property
of both land and movable goods. In various nations, women are not full
equals under the law, which means they do not have the same property
rights as men; the rights to make a contract; or the rights of
association, mobility, and religious liberty.
Assets are primarily owned by husbands or are used for household
production or consumption, neither of which help women with loan
repayments. In order to refund their loans, women are usually required
to undergo the 'disempowering' process of having to work harder as wage
laborers, while also encountering a growing gendered resource divide at
the domestic level.
One of the major factors influencing women to greater poverty are the
limited opportunities, capabilities, and empowerment in terms of access
to and control over production resources of land, labor, human capital
assets including education and health, and social capital assets such as
participation at various levels, legal rights, and protection.
Time poverty
Time
is a component that is included in poverty because it is an essential
resource that is oftentimes distributed inequitably across individuals,
especially in the context of the inadequacy of other resources. It is extremely relevant to gender, with a marked difference in gender roles and responsibilities observed across the world. Women are certainly more time-poor than men across the income distribution.
Women concentrate on reproductive or unremunerated activities, while
men concentrate in productive or compensated activities. Women generally
face more limited access to leisure and work more hours in the sum of
productive and reproductive work than do men.
Time poverty can be interpreted in regards to the lack of sufficient
time to rest and sleep. The greater the time devoted to paid or
unremunerated work, the less time there is available for other
activities such as relaxation and pleasure. A person who lacks adequate
time to sleep and rest, levies and works in a state of 'time poverty'.
The allocation of time between women and men in the household and in
the economy, is a major gender issue in the evolving discourse on time
poverty.
According to the capabilities approach, any inquiry into people's
well-being must involve asking not only how much people make but also
how they manage their time in order to obtain the goods and services to
meet their livelihoods.
Time poverty is a serious constraint on individual well-being as it
prevents having sufficient rest and sleep, enjoying leisure, and taking
part in community or social life.
Capability deprivations
Since
the last twenty-five years, feminist research has consistently stressed
the importance of more holistic conceptual frameworks to encapsulate
gendered privation.
These include: 'capability' and 'human development' frameworks, which
identify factors such as deprivations in education and health. Another
is 'livelihoods' frameworks, which indicate social as well as material
assets. Also, 'social exclusion' perspectives, which highlight the
marginalization of the poor; and frameworks which stress the
significance of subjective dimensions of poverty such as self-esteem,
dignity, choice, and power. A higher share of women than of men are
poor, women undergo greater depth or severity of poverty than men, women
are likely to experience more persistent and longer-term poverty than
men, women's irregular burden of poverty is increasing relative to men,
women face more difficulties in lifting themselves out of poverty, and
women-headed households are the 'poorest of the poor' are the common
characterizations of the 'Feminization of poverty'.
Deprivation of health outcomes
Poor
women are more vulnerable to chronic diseases because of material
deprivation and psychosocial stress, higher levels of risk behavior,
unhealthy living conditions and limited access to good quality
healthcare.
Women are more susceptible to diseases in poverty because they are less
well-nourished and healthy than men and more vulnerable to physical
violence and sexual abuse. Being able to have good health, including
reproductive health, be adequately nourished, and have adequate shelter
can make an enormous difference to their lives.
Violence against women is a major contributing factor to HIV infection.
Stillwaggon argues that in sub-Saharan Africa poverty associated with
high-risk for HIV transmission adds to the stigma and social risk for
women and girls in particular. Poverty and its correlates like
malnutrition and parasite burden can weaken the host and create a
dangerous environment, making sex and birth and medical care riskier for
poor women.
Social and cultural exclusions
Other metrics can be used besides the poverty line, to see whether or not people are impoverished in their respective countries. The concept of social and cultural exclusion helps to better convey poverty as a process that involves multiple agents. Many developing countries have social and cultural norms that prevent women from having access to formal employment.
Especially in parts of Asia, North Africa, and Latin America, the
cultural and social norms do not allow women to have much labor
productivity outside the home as well as an economic bargaining position
within the household.
This social inequality deprives women of capabilities, particularly
employment, which leads to women having a higher risk of poverty. This increase in occupational gender segregation and widening of the gender wage gap increases women's susceptibility to poverty.
Measures of poverty
An
important aspect of analyzing the feminization of poverty is the
understanding of how it is measured. It is inaccurate to assume that
income is the only deprivation that affects women's poverty. To examine
the issue from a multidimensional perspective, there must first be
accurate and indices available for policy makers interested in gender
empowerment.
Often aggregate indices are criticized for their concentration on
monetary issues, especially when data on women's income is sparse and
groups women into one large, undifferentiated mass. Three indexes often examined are Gender-related Development Index, Gender Empowerment Measure, and Human Poverty Index. The first two are gendered- indices, in that they specifically gather data on women to evaluate gender inequalities, and are useful in understanding disparities in gender opportunities and choices. HPI, however, focuses on deprivation measures rather than income measures.
Shows longevity, or life-expectancy of females and males
Education or knowledge
Decent standard of living
The aim of this index is to rank countries according to both their
absolute level of human development and relative scores on gender
equality. Although this index has increased government attention to
gender inequality and development, its three measures have often been
criticized for neglecting important aspects. Its relevance, however,
continues to be integral to the understanding of the feminization of
poverty, as countries with lower scores may then be then stimulated to
focus on policies to assess and reduce gender disparities.
GEM measures female political and income opportunities through:
Analyzing how many seats of government are occupied by women
Proportion of management positions occupied by women
Female share of jobs
Estimated female to male income ratio
HPI is a multidimensional, non-income-based approach. It takes into consideration four dimensions:
Survival
Knowledge
Decent standard of living
Social participation
This index is useful in understanding and illuminating the
differences between human poverty (which focuses on the denial of basic
rights, such as dignity and freedom) and income poverty. For example,
despite the U.S.'s high income stability, it is also ranked among the
highest developed nations in human poverty.
In her article, "Towards a Gendered Human Poverty Measure", Elizabeth
Durbin critiques HPI and expands on the possibility of a
gender-sensitive index. She argues that HPI incorporates three
dimensions of poverty: life span measured by the proportion of the
population expected to die before age 40, lack of knowledge measured by
the proportion who are illiterate, and a decent standard of living
measured by a composite index of access to health services, access to
safe water, and malnutrition among children less than 5, that could
specifically account for gender disparities. Despite its uses, however,
it is important to note that HPI cannot be a true measure of poverty
because it fails to examine certain deprivations, such as lack of
property ownership and credit, that are essential to a stronger
bargaining position in the household for women.
Religion
Within
many of the major religious groups in the world, focus is placed upon
traditional gender roles and each individual's duty. Many devout
followers of each religion have used their respective religious texts or
rulings to further the poverty cycle of women around the world.
Islam
In a 2004 report by the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Muslim
women were found more likely to work part-time jobs than Muslim men
because of their religion's emphasis on the role of women as caregivers
and housekeepers. The study found that these women are more likely to be
financially dependent than men because they choose to participate less
in the labor market. Muslim women who choose to wear traditional female Muslim accessories such as henna and hijabs
may have a more difficult time finding employment than those who do not
wear such clothing. On the local level, a woman was fired from a Jiffy
Lube for refusing to remove her hijab at work because it violated the
company's "no hat" rule.
In the 2008 case Webb versus Philadelphia, the court ruled that an
officer wearing her hijab with her uniform, was in violation of the
states' standard of neutrality. Because of the violation of this
standard, she was not allowed to legally wear the hijab while on duty.
Traditional Judaism
Under traditional Halachic law, Jewish women are also considered to be household caregivers rather than breadwinners. Within the Jewish text, the Mishnah,
it states "she should fill for him his cup, make ready his bed and wash
his face, hands and feet," when describing the role of women under
Jewish law.
Christianity
Certain sects of Christianity also regard women as more family-oriented than men.
Female poverty by region
Many developing countries in the world have exceptionally high rates of females under the poverty line. Many countries in Asia, Africa,
and parts of Europe deprive women of access to higher income and
important capabilities. Women in these countries are disproportionately
put at the highest risk of poverty and continue to face social and
cultural barriers that prevent them from escaping poverty.
East Asia
Although
China has grown tremendously in its economy over the past years, its
economic growth has had minimal effect on decreasing the number of
females below the poverty line. Economic growth did not reduce gender
gaps in income or provide more formal employment opportunities for
women. Instead, China's economic growth increased its use of informal
employment, which has affected women disproportionately. In the Republic
of Korea, low wages for women helped instigate an economic growth in
Korea since low-cost exports were mostly produced by women. Similar to
China, Korean women mostly had the opportunity for informal employment,
which deprives women of financial stability and safe working
environments. Although women in East Asia had greater access to
employment, they faced job segregation in export industries, which
placed them at a high risk of poverty.
China is a country with a long history of gender discrimination.
In order to address gender inequality issues, Chinese leaders have
created more access for women to obtain capabilities. As a result,
Chinese women are granted greater access to health services, employment
opportunities, and general recognition for their important contributions
to the economy and society.
Africa
Women in Africa
face considerable barriers to achieving economic equality with their
male counterparts due to a general lack of property rights, access to
credit, education and technical skills, health, protection against
gender-based violence, and political power. Although women work 50% longer workdays than men, they receive two-thirds of the pay of their male counterparts and hold only 40% of formal salaried jobs.
The longer workdays can be attributed to the cultural expectations of
women to perform forms of unpaid labor such as gathering firewood,
drawing water, childcare, eldercare, and housework.
Women face greater challenges in finding employment because of their
lack of education. According to Montenegro and Patrinos, one additional
year of primary, secondary, and tertiary school can increase future
wages by 17.5%, 12.7%, and 21.3% respectively.
Unfortunately, due to factors such as child marriage, early pregnancy,
and cultural norms, only 21% of girls complete tertiary school.
Without formal property rights, women in Africa only own 15% of the
land, which makes them more vulnerable to be economically dependent on
male family members or partners and diminishes their ability to use
property to access financial systems such as banks and loans. As a result of having less economic power, women are generally more vulnerable to gender-based violence and risk of HIV/AIDS.
Morocco
The female population, especially in rural areas, dominantly represents the face of poverty in Morocco.
There have been two major methods to measure poverty in Morocco, which
include the 'classic approach' and a second approach that pertains more
towards the capabilities approach.
The 'classic approach' uses the poverty line to statistically determine
the impoverished population. This approach quantifies the number of
poor individuals and households but does not take into account how the
impoverished population lacks basic needs such as housing, food, health
and education. The second approach focuses on satisfying this lack of
basic needs and emphasizes the multidimensional nature of poverty.
Moroccan women represent the most economically insecure social
group in the country. One of six Moroccan households are lone-mother
households, which represent the most impoverished households in the
country. Women are categorized to have the highest levels of
socio-economic and legal constraints, which exclude them from obtaining
their basic needs. Although recent surveys show that women actively help
in providing for their families economically, Moroccan legal texts
discourage women's participation in economic productivity. Article 114
of the Moroccan Family Law states, "every human being is responsible for
providing for his needs by his own powers except the wife whose needs
will be taken care of by her husband." The patriarchal social structure
of Morocco puts women as being inferior to men in all aspects. Women are
denied equal opportunities in education and employment before the law,
as well as access to resources. As a result, the female population in
Morocco suffers from deprivation of capabilities. Young girls are often
excluded from educational opportunities due to limited financial
resources within the household and the burden of household chores
expected from them.
Over time, Moroccan women have gained more access to employment.
However, this quantitative increase in labor participation for women has
not been accompanied by higher qualitative standards of labor. The
labor of rural women in Morocco remain unacknowledged and unpaid. Women
are put into a higher risk of poverty as their domestic workload is
added onto their unpaid labor. This balance of domestic labor and work
outside the home imposes a burden on rural women. Since the
socioeconomic exclusion of women deprive them of the capabilities to be
educated and trained for certain employment skills, their susceptibility
to poverty is heightened. Low educational skills of women directly
relate to the limited employment options they have in society. Although
both men and women are affected by unemployment, women are more likely
to lose their jobs than men. Recent research in Morocco shows that
economic recessions in the country affect women the most.
United Kingdom
An investigation of women below the poverty line in the United Kingdom
between 1959 and 1984 discovered a substantial increase in the
percentage of women who are in poverty in the 1960s. The percentage
remained relatively constant in the 1970s, and then decreased between
1979 and 1984. The increase of women below the poverty line in the 1960s
was determined to be from an increase of women in one-sex households.
This was more adverse for black women than white women.
Dominican Republic
Dominican women make generally forty-four cents on the dollar as compared to men. This wage gap
often leads to a high level of food insecurity among women in the
Dominican Republic. Those in poverty have an increased likelihood to
participate in dangerous behaviors such as unprotected sex and drug use. These behaviors put them at a greater risk for contracting HIV and other diseases. There is a negative stigma around HIV positive
women in the Dominican Republic. For this reason, women are more likely
to be subjected to health screenings when applying for a job. If the
screening reveals a person is HIV positive, they are less likely to be
given employment.
United States
In 2016, 14.0% of women and 11.3% of men were below the poverty threshold. The 2016 poverty threshold was $12,228 for single people and $24,339 for a family of four with two children.
In response, the United States government provides financial
assistance to those who do not earn as much money. In 2015, 23.2% of
women were given financial assistance compared with 19.3% of men. More women are given financial assistance than men in all government programs (Medicaid, SNAP, housing assistance, SSI, TANF/GA). Women were given 86% of child-support in 2013.
India
The poverty that women experience in India is known as human poverty, or issues of inadequate food, housing, education, healthcare, sanitation, poor developmental policies, and more. Poverty has been prevalent in India for many years, but there was a noticeable increase after globalization in 1991 when the International Monetary Fund instilled a structural adjustment
program (SAP) in order to give India a loan. Large amounts of capital
flowed into the country but also led to the exploitation of the Indian
market, particularly of women for their cheap labor. This reduced their
opportunities for education and escape from the poverty trap.
The Indian Constitution has proclaimed that all citizens have equal rights, but this is not always practiced by all Indians. Sex-selective abortion
is a wide phenomenon in India in which males are preferentially
selected. In order to get married, it is normal to see the girl's family
paying dowry
to the male's family. This leads to more sex-selective abortion as
females are more costly for the family, and less focus on female
development.
Home life
Women
are restricted in India due to a heavy dependency of social status on
female appearance and activity around the home. Poor behavior on their
part results in lower social status and shame for the male head of the
family.
Women are expected to maintain the household with a strict schedule.
Husbands often move to the city to find work and leave their wife as the
primary earner in their absence. Women in these situations may resort
to using favors or borrowing money in order to survive, which they must
later return in cash with interest. Young girls are especially
vulnerable to prostitution or bribing as a form of repayment.
Competition amongst women around water, food, and employment is also
prevalent, especially in urban slums.
Employment
The expectation for Indian women is to be the sole care taker and maintainer of the home.
If women leave their children and work they are often left in the hands
of a poor care taker (possibly the eldest daughter) and don't get
enough resources for development.
In many areas working outside of the home is seen as symbolic of having
low status. Upper-class women have similar social restrictions,
although lower class females frequently have a larger necessity of the
added income than upper class females.
Men tend to send money back to extended family, whereas money that a
woman makes goes to her husband. This reduces the incentive of the
family to urge their daughter to find work as they wouldn't receive
money but would face shame in society.
Conceptual barriers prevent women from being accepted as equally paid and equally able laborers.
In many ways women are seen as excess reserve labor and get pushed into
roles that are known as being dirty, unorganized, arduous, and
underdeveloped. They are hurt by the mechanization of industries and while self-employment is a viable option, there is always a large risk of failure and exploitation.
Healthcare
Healthcare
is difficult to access for women, particularly elderly women. Public
clinics are overcrowded, understaffed, and have high transportation
costs, while private clinics are too expensive without insurance. Females are more likely to get ill than males although males receive medical advice [[DJS -- Advice? Not care?]] with higher frequency.
Women frequently feel as if they are a burden to their husband or son
when they get sick and require money to purchase the correct medicines.
Some believe that their symptoms are not serious or important enough to spend money on.
When women do receive some form of care, many times medical providers
are biased against them and are partial to treating males over females. Many mothers also die during childbirth or pregnancy as they suffer from malnutrition and anemia. Over 50% of women in the National Family Health Surveys were anemic.
Nutrition
Poverty is a large source of malnutrition
in women. Women in poverty are not allowed to eat the nutritious food
that men are when it is available. While it is the women's job to obtain
the food, it is fed to the males of the household.
The 2005-2006 National Family Health Survey found that more men drink
milk and eat fruit in comparison to women, and that less than 5% of
females in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan eat meat or eggs. Poor nutrition begins at a young age and gets worse as women mature and become mothers.
Education
Effective policies to aid in expanding female education aren't productively enforced by the Government of India. Data from the 2001 census showed that primary school completion rates were around 62% for males and 40% for females. Teenage girls are generally taught how to care for their siblings and cook food and not taught math or science.
Some families may believe men to be more qualified than women to get a
higher paying job. In many instances this inequality between male and
female education leads to child marriage, teenage pregnancies, and a male dominated household. Evidence suggests that educating girls results in reduced fertility, due to an urge to work and pursue higher social status. This lessens the financial burden on families.
Policies
Conditional cash transfer
Conditional cash transfer
is a possible policy for addressing current and intergenerational
poverty where poor women play a central role. Women in the role as
mothers are given the additional work burdens imposed. Conditional cash
transfers are not ideal for addressing single-mother poverty.
Microcredit
Microcredit
can be a potential policy for assisting poor women in developing
countries. Microcredit is a tool design to hopefully alleviate poverty
given that women living in developing countries have very few resources
and connections for survival due to not having a solid financial
foundation.
Welfare reform in the U.S.
In
light of welfare reforms as of 2001, federal legislation required
recipients of welfare (mainly aided to families) to participate in an
educational or vocational school and work part-time in order to receive
the benefits. Recipients attending a college now have 3 years to
complete those degree in order to get people to work as quickly as
possible.
To try towards a system of reward, Mojisola Tiamiyu and Shelley
Mitchell, suggest implementing child care services to promote
employment. Women with children work in either low-paying or part-time
jobs that are insufficient to raise a family. Single parenting in the United States has increased to 1 in 4 families being headed by a single parent. It is estimated that children living in single parent homes are as much as 4 times more likely to become impoverished (Juvenilization of poverty).
In creationism, a religious view based on a literal reading of the Book of Genesis and other biblical texts, created kinds are purported to be the original forms of life as they were created by God. They are also referred to in creationist literature as kinds, original kinds, Genesis kinds, and baramins (baramin is a neologism coined by combining the Hebrew words bara (בָּרָא bará , "created") and min (מִין min , "kind").
These creationists believe that not all creatures on Earth are
genealogically related, and that living organisms were created by God in
a finite number of discrete forms with genetic
boundaries to prevent interbreeding. This viewpoint claims that the
created kinds or baramins are genealogically discrete and are incapable
of interbreeding and have no evolutionary (i.e., higher-level macroevolutionary) relationship to one another.
The concept of the "kind" originates from a literal reading of Genesis 1:12–24:
And God said, let the earth bring
forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit
after his kind … And God created great whales and every living creature
that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind,
and every winged fowl after his kind … And God said, let the earth
bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping
thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so.
There is some uncertainty about what exactly the Bible means when it
talks of "kinds". Creationist Brian Nelson claimed "While the Bible
allows that new varieties may have arisen since the creative days, it
denies that any new species
have arisen." However, Russell Mixter, another creationist writer, said
that "One should not insist that "kind" means species. The word "kind"
as used in the Bible may apply to any animal which may be distinguished
in any way from another, or it may be applied to a large group of
species distinguishable from another group ... there is plenty of room
for differences of opinion on what are the kinds of Genesis."
Frank Lewis Marsh coined the term baramin in his book Fundamental Biology (1941) and expanded on the concept in Evolution, Creation, and Science
(c. 1944), in which he stated that the ability to hybridize and create
viable offspring was a sufficient condition for being members of the
same baramin. However, he said that it was not a necessary condition,
acknowledging that observed speciation events among Drosophila fruitflies had been shown to cut off hybridization.
Marsh also originated "discontinuity systematics",
the idea that there are boundaries between different animals that
cannot be crossed with the consequence that there would be
discontinuities in the history of life and limits to common ancestry.
Baraminology
In 1990, Kurt Wise introduced baraminology as an adaptation of Marsh's and Walter ReMine's ideas that was more in keeping with young Earth creationism. Wise advocated using the Bible as a source of systematic data.
Baraminology and its associated concepts have been criticized by
scientists and creationists for lacking formal structure. Consequently,
in 2003 Wise and other creationists proposed a refined baramin concept
in the hope of developing a broader creationist model of biology.
Alan Gishlick, reviewing the work of baraminologists in 2006, found it
to be surprisingly rigorous and internally consistent, but concluded
that the methods did not work.
Walter ReMine specified four groupings: holobaramins,
monobaramins, apobaramins, and polybaramins. These are, respectively,
all things of one kind; some things of the same kind; groups of kinds;
and any mixed grouping of things. These groups correspond to the concepts of holophyly, monophyly, paraphyly, and polyphyly used in cladistics.
Methods
Baraminology employs many of the same methods used in evolutionary systematics, including cladistics
and Analysis of Pattern (ANOPA). However, instead of identifying
continuity between groups of organisms based on shared similarities,
baraminology uses these methods to search for morphological and genetic
gaps between groups. Baraminologists have also developed their own
creationist systematics software, known as BDIST, to measure distance
between groups.
Criticism
The
methods of baraminology are not universally accepted among young-Earth
creationists. Other creationists have criticized these methods as having
the same problems as traditional cladistics, as well as for occasionally producing results that they feel contradict the Bible.
Baraminology has been heavily criticized for its lack of rigorous
tests and post-study rejection of data to make it better fit the
desired findings. By denying general common descent, it tends to produce inconsistent results that also conflict with evidence discovered by biology. Created kinds have been compared to other attempts at "alternate research" to produce artificial pseudoscientific "evidence" that support preconceived conclusions, similarly to how advocacy was done by the tobacco industry. The US National Academy of Science and numerous other scientific and scholarly organizations recognize creation science as pseudoscience.
Some techniques employed in Baraminology have been used to
demonstrate evolution, thereby calling baraminological conclusions into
question.
