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Box 6-3: Women and Poverty<br />

While women continue to have a higher poverty rate than men, the<br />

gap has decreased over time as poverty has fallen more for women than<br />

for men. The following chart shows that the gap between working-age<br />

women and men has decreased from 4.7 percent to 1.7 percent from<br />

1967 to 2012.<br />

The decline in the poverty rate among women has been tempered<br />

by an increase in the number of single mothers, who have higher rates<br />

of poverty. The share of working-age women who are single mothers<br />

rose from 11.6 to 16.1 percent between 1967 and 2012. Had the poverty<br />

rates of demographic groups (based on marriage and motherhood<br />

only) remained as they were in 1967, this change would have increased<br />

poverty rates for working-age women by 2.1 percentage points. In fact,<br />

poverty rates of women in all marriage and motherhood groups fell due<br />

to increased work, rising education, and smaller families (Cancian and<br />

Reed 2009), as well as to the increased impact of the safety net described<br />

in this chapter.<br />

The effect of government transfer and social insurance programs<br />

on poverty is slightly larger for women than for men. These programs<br />

reduced the 2012 poverty rate by 8.1 percentage points for working-age<br />

women compared to 6.4 percentage points for working-age men. This<br />

gender difference has been fairly stable over time, indicating that growth<br />

in these programs does not explain the narrowing poverty gap shown<br />

above. Rather, the closing of the gender poverty gap appears to be due to<br />

increases in women’s education and employment rates relative to men.<br />

SPM Poverty Rates for Working Age Adults by Gender, 1967–2012<br />

Percent<br />

25<br />

20<br />

2012<br />

15<br />

Women<br />

10<br />

Men<br />

5<br />

Difference (Women-Men)<br />

0<br />

1967 1977 1987 1997 2007<br />

Source: Wimer et al (2013).<br />

The War On Poverty 50 Years Later: A Progress Report | 231

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