The Female Face of Poverty

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/the-female-face-of-poverty/282892/


Caitlin Bell fixes her daughter's hair in the morning in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Barbara Kinney)

Let me state the obvious: I have never lived on the brink. I’ve never been in foreclosure, never applied for food stamps, never had to choose between feeding my children or paying the rent, and never feared I’d lose my paycheck when I had to take time off to care for a sick child or parent. I'm not thrown into crisis mode if I have to pay a parking ticket, or if the rent goes up. If my car breaks down, my life doesn’t descend into chaos.

But the fact is, one in three people in the United States do live with this kind of stress, struggle, and anxiety every day. More than 100 million Americans either live near the brink of poverty or churn in and out of it, and nearly 70 percent of these Americans are women and children.

***SNIP

Many of these women feel they are just a single incident—one broken bone, one broken-down car, one missed paycheck—away from the brink. And they’re not crazy to feel that way:

Women are nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers in the country.
More than 70 percent of low-wage workers get no paid sick days at all.
Forty percent of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income.
The median earnings of full-time female workers are still just 77 percent of the median earnings of their male counterparts.

[Arkansas Granny]

1. Great article. Thanks for posting.

[xchrom]

2. ...

[daleanime]

3. K&R....

[laundry_queen]

4. K&R

I shouldn't have read the comments. *sigh*

Good article though. I can't imagine having to live like that...I'm a single mom and things are tight since I'm in school right now but I receive enough child support and spousal support to keep the bills paid. When I have an unexpected bill, like a recent hike in property taxes or vehicle repairs, I've been known to breakdown and cry. Luckily I do have people I can go to for help, and I have a small savings amount to cover the smaller emergencies. And I don't have to worry about medical stuff, since I'm in Canada. I can't even imagine what these women go through on a regular basis.

[jsr]

5. Recommend

[Demo_Chris]

6. rec

[athena]

7. K&R (n/t)

[redqueen]

8. K&R nt