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 ones 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 worlds 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 (Womens Budget Group, 2010).

Child poverty and womens poverty

Research also shows that womens poverty is an indicator for childrens poverty. The well-being of children cannot be divorced from that of their mothers (Womens Budget Group, 2010).

Child poverty and womens 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 womens 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 womens poverty

Women are increasingly dependent on their own market earnings, which remain lower than mens, both because of segregation and discrimination in labour market, and because women commonly curtail their employment during childrearing years.

Child poverty and womens 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 womens 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 womens 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 womens 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 womens 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 womens 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 childrens 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 childrens 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 childrens 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 childrens 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 childrens 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. Womens Budget Group (2005), Womens and childrens poverty: making the links http://www.wbg.org.uk/documents/WBGWomensandchildrenspoverty.pdf