Female Head of Household

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the problems of female heads of households have their origins in the economics of the nation, which favor full-time work and reward males disproportionately for the same labor. It looks at how this initial imbalance is intensified by the social welfare system, which would rather punish female heads of households than help them, no matter what effect it might have on them or their offspring. It also discusses how any solution would need to be two-fold, societal and political.

From the Paper:

"Sharp noted that the market "ignores the long household work hours, the hours of care-giving, and the work imposed by traditional familial roles of the larger society. But a greater commitment to the labor market by women poses problems for women's economic health for two reasons" (1998). Moreover, the problem for working female heads of households is even more severe. "First, the incomes earned by many women are not significantly above the levels sufficient to support a family at a standard of living above the poverty line" (Sharp, 1998). For all women, he noted, household tasks and market labor, taken together, add up to long hours and low pay for all women, but for female heads of household, the 'environment', as Sharp calls the complex of paid and unpaid labor, is even worse."

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• Research Paper # 24801 : "The Feminization Of Poverty"

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