Poverty, women and children
Onderzoeksseminarie armoedeonderzoek en kinderrechten
Elisabetta Ruspini, University of Milano-Bicocca
University of Gent, 10 February 2011
Introduction
• Is it relevant to focus on research on
“poverty”, or should we do research on
“exclusion” in different social fields?
• Is it relevant to focus on “child
poverty” as specific topic?
• How should we quantify child poverty?
Are the current ways of measuring
child welfare accurate and appropriate?
“Measuring” poverty
• There are many alternative ways to define
poverty and to identify the poor: any
“measure” of poverty involves a large
number of choices.
“Measuring” poverty
• Poverty rates are very sensitive to the
definition of poverty itself.
• The adoption of either one or other
method to define low income may heavily
influence both the absolute number and
the structure of the population which is
‘poor’.
Poverty and social exclusion
• People are living in poverty if their income
and resources (both material and nonmaterial) are so inadequate as to preclude
them from having a standard of living
which is regarded as acceptable by a
society.
Poverty and social exclusion
• Absolute poverty is a level of poverty at
which certain minimum standards of living
- for example for nutrition and shelter cannot be met.
• The term “absolute poverty” is perhaps
misleading, since there is no "absolute"
standard that defines absolute poverty.
Poverty and social exclusion
• As a result of inadequate income and
resources people may be excluded and
marginalised from participating in activities
which are considered the “norm” for other
people in society.
• http://www.socialinclusion.ie/poverty.html
Poverty and social exclusion
• Social exclusion has been described as a
phenomenon in which one or more of the social
sub-systems is functioning inadequately: the
economic system, leading to exclusion from the
labour market; the social system, including a
welfare state whose failure leads to
impoverishment; family and community systems,
leading to exclusion from social relations; and
the power distribution system (Ministry of Health
and Social Affairs, 2000).
Poverty and social exclusion
The non-monetary dimension of deprivation is
important since it makes it possible for us to
understand the consequences of economic
hardship and the connection between low
incomes and lack of resources.
There are less quantifiable aspects of poverty,
such as not being able to see friends and
relatives, which are not only different for women
and men but also differ between groups of
women (Pantazis and Ruspini, 2006).
Child poverty, different definitions
• “Child poverty is a significant lack of the basic
needs required for healthy physical, mental,
emotional, and spiritual development. Child
poverty is also defined as a lack of opportunities
(capability deprivation), a lack of control over
one’s life, as social isolation and as
discriminatory treatment at the hands of others”.
• http://www.freethechildren.com/getinvolved/geteducated/
childpoverty.htm
Child poverty, different definitions
• “Children living in poverty are deprived of
nutrition, water and sanitation facilities, access
to basic health-care services, shelter, education,
participation and protection, and that while a
severe lack of goods and services hurts every
human being, it is most threatening and harmful
to children, leaving them unable to enjoy their
rights, to reach their full potential and to
participate as full members of the society”
• http://www.unicef.org/media/media_38003.html
Child poverty, different definitions
• “Child poverty, as with poverty itself, is a
complex notion to define precisely.
• A typical holistic measure of ‘poverty’ is the
standard of life enjoyed by an individual,
measured principally by their level of income,
and then incorporating a number of factors,
including environmental, social, material, health
and educative indicators”.
• http://www.politics.co.uk/briefings-guides/issuebriefs/children-and-family/child-poverty-$366659.htm
Trends in child poverty
• Trends in child poverty, according to
official statistics, are not encouraging.
• After a period of improvement in the
1960s, child poverty worsened over the
last three decades.
Trends in child poverty
• Child poverty rates in the world’s wealthiest
nations vary from under 3% to over 25%
• In the league table of relative child poverty, the
bottom four places areoccupied by the United
Kingdom, Italy, the United States, and Mexico.
• In the league table of absolute child poverty, the
bottom four places are occupied by Spain, the
Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland.
• http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/repcard1e.pdf
Trends in child poverty
• In many Member States of the European
Union suffer unacceptably high levels of
child poverty. Recent figures show that
21% of dependent children under 18 in the
EU are living in a low-income household
(Women’s Budget Group, 2010).
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• Research also shows that women’s
poverty is an indicator for children’s
poverty. The well-being of children cannot
be divorced from that of their mothers
(Women’s Budget Group, 2010).
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• Child poverty is increasing. Why?
• The past few decades have seen
fundamental social, economic and
demographic changes which have strongly
influenced the child poverty rate (and
diversified poverty risks, especially for
women).
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• The child poverty rate is affected by the largescale changes in family formation that have
occurred in recent decades with an increase in
lone parent families.
• Increasing trends towards delayed marriage,
higher divorce and separation, and lone
motherhood, result in men contributing less to
the income of women and children.
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• Women are increasingly dependent on
their own market earnings, which remain
lower than men’s, both because of
segregation and discrimination in labour
market, and because women commonly
curtail their employment during childrearing years.
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• Changing family patterns and population
ageing also result in new and more
complex relationships of obligation and
exchange across and between
generations and households which can
affect the caring capacity of women and
families.
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• Working class women are doubly
disadvantaged by being more likely to
have to provide care to elderly parents at
an earlier age, when it conflicts with
employment, and by having poorer
financial resources to ease this caring
burden (Arber and Ginn 1993).
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• Women tend to be the money managers,
particularly in low-income households.
• They are more likely to experience the
stresses involved in managing on low
incomes and having to balance debts.
• In some low-income households parents,
but especially mothers, forego their own
consumption to meet the demands of their
children.
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• As part of their role as poverty managers,
mothers frequently act as shock
absorbers, shielding their children (and
sometimes partners) from the full impact of
the inadequate financial resources at their
command. This can mean mothers going
without food, clothing and warmth
• (Lister, 2005
http://www.cpag.org.uk/info/Povertyarticles/Poverty121/li
nks.htm)
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• “Mothers’ earnings are important not only in the
short term in keeping two-parent families out of
poverty; they can also be crucial in guarding
against future hardship should the family split
up”.
• “Similarly, paid work does significantly reduce
the risk of poverty among lone parent families”.
• (Lister, 2005
http://www.cpag.org.uk/info/Povertyarticles/Poverty121/links.htm)
Child poverty and women’s poverty
• A gendered child poverty strategy
reinforces the case for adequate childcare
provision.
• Childcare is a barrier for lone parents
wishing to progress. Not being able to find
suitable childcare, and the high costs
involved, are ongoing themes (Daguerre and
Nativel, 2006; Cavan Lone Parents Initiative, 2007).
Tackling children’s poverty
• “The UN General Assembly has
recognised the special nature of poverty
for children, stating clearly that child
poverty is about more than just a lack of
money, and can only be understood as the
denial of a range of rights laid out in the
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child”.
• http://www.unicef.org/media/media_38003.html
Tackling children’s poverty
• “According to this new definition,
measuring child poverty can no longer be
lumped together with general poverty
assessments which often focus solely on
income levels, but must take into
consideration access to basic social
services, especially nutrition, water,
sanitation, shelter, education and
information”
• http://www.unicef.org/media/media_38003.html
Tackling children’s poverty
• According to some studies
• http://www.eldis.org/id21ext/s5bhw1g1.html
• child welfare indicators need to be different from
standard poverty indicators used for adults
• it becomes necessary to use the four “domains
of well-being” required by a child to lead what
Amartya Sen has referred to as a “good life”:
material well-being, health and survival,
education and personal development and social
inclusion/participation
Tackling children’s poverty
• to look at inter-household allocation and to
consider the likelihood that variations in childspecific consumption are determined by
variations in total household consumption and
variations by household type
• to pay attention to the importance of play and
leisure in child development and to collect
information on children’s membership of social
groups beyond family and school.
References
•
Arber S. and Ginn J. (1993) ‘Gender differences in informal caring’, Health and Social Care in the
Community’, vol. 3, no. 1, 19-31.
•
•
Cavan Lone Parents Initiative (2007), Lone parents and labour market barriers in County Cavan
http://www.socialinclusion.ie/documents/Cavanloneparentreport.pdf
•
Daguerre A. and Nativel C. (2006, eds.), When children become parents. Welfare state responses
to teenage pregnancy, Bristol: The Policy Press.
•
•
Lister R. (2005), The links between women's and children's poverty
http://www.cpag.org.uk/info/Povertyarticles/Poverty121/links.htm
•
Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (2000) Defining poverty and ways of measuring it
(http://pre20031103.stm.fi/english/tao/publicat/poverty/definit.htm).
•
Pantazis C. and Ruspini E. (2006), “Gender, poverty and social exclusion”, in D. Gordon, R.
Levitas, C. Pantazis (eds.), Poverty and Social Exclusion: The Millennium Survey, Bristol, The
Policy Press, 375-403.
•
Ruspini E. (2000), “Poverty and the gendered distribution of resources within households”, Issue
of Radical Statics on Money and Finance, n. 75, Autumn, 25-37.
•
Women’s Budget Group (2005), Women’s and children’s poverty: making the links
http://www.wbg.org.uk/documents/WBGWomensandchildrenspoverty.pdf