Women, Children and Poverty

I need help with a Sociology question. All explanations and answers will be used to help me learn.

Please read article Female Headship, Feminization of Poverty and Welfare and Poverty.

Please share two points that stood out to you in the article and why they stood out.
Please respond to two other posts as well. (short respond 2 to 3 lines )

Please be respectful of each person’s post.

Student 1

While reading the article “Female headship, feminization of poverty and welfare”, one point that stood out to me were the statistics mentioned, regarding the amount of women having children out of marriage. For example “In 1950…17.5 out-of-wedlock births for every 1,000 births to white women” compared to “For nonwhites, the number of out-of-wedlock births was 179.6 per 1,000 live births in 1950” To me that was a very large difference between white and nonwhite women. Being single and with children creates even more of a struggle and higher risk in being in poverty. This shows that nonwhite women have always had a more difficult time in history.The second point that stood out to me was the requirement from some welfare programs asking that the family be headed by a female. I just thought that was interesting to have as a requirement.

Student 2

I never realized how many single women are heads of households. This makes so much sense, they are struggling to work, take care of kids, provide housing, food, daycare, and other various needs for their children all on one income. My cousin currently is in that situation and i feel incredibly sempathetic for her. Shes explained “its not as easy as getting another job, who will put my kids to bed and make sure they’re having dinner while i’m at work? What happens when a child a sick and i cant miss work, Or even better, do you know how much daycare is for an infant and two kids? I had no control over their father leaving. So its not as easy as getting another job.” These moms are very fortunate to have government help. Without it they would not make it, and their kids would be removed from the home. I hear so many people say “i pay taxes so others can live off of them” well they pay those taxes too. Without that support there would be no chance of them getting out of that situation. It also shocked me that if a single man was the head of a household, the chances of them going into poverty are significantly less.