Brady David, Kall Denise
Department of Sociology, Duke University, Box 90088, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
Soc Sci Res. 2008 Sep;37(3):976-1007. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2007.07.001.
Our study extends research on the feminization of poverty by analyzing the variation in women's, men's, and feminized poverty across affluent democracies from 1969 to 2000. Specifically, we address three issues. First, we provide more recent estimates of adult women's and men's poverty and the ratio of women's to men's poverty with two different poverty measures. We suggest that by incorporating the elderly, the feminization of poverty may be greater than previously estimated. The feminization of poverty is nearly universal across affluent Western democracies 1969-2000. Second, we show that women's, men's and overall poverty are highly correlated, but the feminization of poverty diverges as a distinct social problem. Third, we find that women's, men's and overall poverty share several correlates, particularly the welfare state, though some differences exist. At the same time, several of our findings differ with past research. The feminization of poverty is only influenced by social security transfers, single motherhood and the sex ratios of the elderly and labor force participation. While power resources theory probably best explains women's, men's and overall poverty, structural theory may best explain the feminization of poverty. We conclude by discussing how analyses of the feminization of poverty contribute to debates on poverty and gender inequality.
我们的研究通过分析1969年至2000年富裕民主国家中女性贫困、男性贫困以及女性化贫困的变化，扩展了对贫困女性化的研究。具体而言，我们探讨了三个问题。首先，我们使用两种不同的贫困衡量方法，提供了成年女性和男性贫困以及女性与男性贫困比率的最新估计。我们认为，纳入老年人后，贫困女性化程度可能比之前估计的更高。1969年至2000年期间，贫困女性化在富裕的西方民主国家几乎普遍存在。其次，我们表明女性贫困、男性贫困和总体贫困高度相关，但贫困女性化作为一个独特的社会问题却有所不同。第三，我们发现女性贫困、男性贫困和总体贫困有几个共同的相关因素，特别是福利国家，尽管存在一些差异。同时，我们的一些发现与过去的研究不同。贫困女性化仅受社会保障转移、单身母亲身份以及老年人性别比例和劳动力参与率的影响。虽然权力资源理论可能最能解释女性贫困、男性贫困和总体贫困，但结构理论可能最能解释贫困女性化。我们通过讨论贫困女性化分析如何促进关于贫困和性别不平等的辩论来得出结论。
