Women and Poverty (1989) - Combat Poverty Agency

wife) can be difficult to satisfy. Peter Ward's research found a
57% success rate among a sample of 266 applications for
:deserted wife.'s' payments over the last seventeen years, for
mstan~e. WhIle valued for its security, welfare can be
degradmg .for. women reari~g children on their own. Applying
the cohabllanon rule for mstance - where welfare officials
seek. to ~stabl~sh whether a woman claimant is· having a
relanonshIP. wIth a man - can be deeply invasive of a
woman's pnvacy. ' . . .
The number of one-parent families is growing in Ireland, as
elsewhere. By 1986 the number of one-parent families had
grown to ~ver 97,000, maki~g up 10% of all private
house~olds .m. Ireland. Trends m Ireland may soon mirror
those m Bntam where one-parent families were the fastest
grO\y~ng group in poverty during the 1970s.(15) One-parent
farmhes ~ow ~~e up nearly half of all the families living in
poverty m Bntam. Such trends are seemingly universal:
between one-quarter and one-third of all families worldwide
are supported by women and these families have been found
to be le.ading candidates for poverty and hardship.(16) One of
~e ~m ~easons why one-par~nt families have both a high
nsk 01 bemg poor and of staYIng poor is because they are
~enied access to the most effective route out of poverty: fullnme
employment for both parents.(17)
Elderly Women
In Ireland in 1986, there were 384,355 people aged 65 years
and over, representing 11% ofthe population. The numbers of
elderly are growing all the time so that there is a general
ageing of the population - as people are livinglonger we have
more old and very old people. Women dominate the over 65s
in greater numbers as one moves up the age range: 56% of all
those over the age of 65 are women, but women are twothirds
of all those who reach, 80 years of age. Although the
ESRI research suggested·that poverty among the elderly had
declined !Jetween 1980 and 1987, the general consensus of
research IS that more women than men end their lives in
poverty. . . ,
There.are a number of reasons for this. First, women live
longer; since l?ld age is closely associated with poverty,
women predonunate among the aging poor. Secondly, women
are poorer before they reach old age - throughout their lives
they have had less access than men to all kinds ~f resourc.es
but especially employment (and therefore occupanonal SOCIal
welfare benefits, including a contributory pension). Women,
then, are less likely than men tp have savings and assets with
which they can supplement their income when they are older.
Thirdly, elderly women are more vulnerable to poverty,
isolation and loneliness because the majority of them. are
either widowed or single, whereas the majo~ty of ~lderly men
are married. Finally, and related to the prevIous pomt, women
are more likely to live alone - for every one m~. over 65
years of age living alone there are two women. LIvmg alone
is closely linked to poverty among the elderly - a recent study
found that 73% of the elderly living alone fell below a
minimum income standard.(18)
The situation here is similar to that elsewhere. In Britain, for
instance, a hierarchy of financial security exists among the
elderly. Couples are the most secure, then men on their own
and finally lone women.(19)
Women in ·'Minorities'
Two groups of women have an especially high risk ofpoverty
in Ireland: women from the traveller community and women
who are homeless. Many in these groups a:e excluded fro!Jl
conventional poverty research: they are unlikely to appear m
the recent ESRI research, for instance, because it is'based on
a sample of the Register of Electors and they are rarely
registered." .' . " -. '
Traveller women are at a very high risk ofpoverty, not only
because they are members of a community that is itself very
vulnerable to poverty but also because of their lower status
within that community, At the -time of the! last qensusof
travellers in 1986, 7,863 women travellers were enumerated
(there were 7,883 men).(20) Life is very harsh fOf,traveller
women: on average the Census ~howed that; wo~ent~nd to
marry very young, raise ten chIldren, have a hIgh nsk of
losing some of their children at birth or in ~arly ?hil~ood,
and will themselves die at a younger age than women m the
settled community. Life is lived in,very poor conditions ­
nearly half of all traveller families still live in cjaravans, a
quarter on the side of the road. Think what: this means for, a
18
19