Gendered Dynamics of Household Poverty
Summary
Household poverty is shaped by gendered power relations, labour markets and social norms. Women who head households often face constrained access to productive assets, employment opportunities and social protection, leading to higher poverty rates compared with male‐headed households. Within families, gender roles govern resource allocation, care responsibilities and coping strategies, while household composition, marital status and migration patterns influence vulnerability. Intersectionality with age, ethnicity and rural–urban divides further differentiates experiences of poverty. Contemporary research emphasises heterogeneity among female‐headed households—ranging from single mothers to women managing extended families—and recognises both vulnerabilities and resilience strategies. Policy interventions addressing labour‐market barriers, targeted cash transfers, childcare provision and land rights have shown promise in reducing gender gaps in poverty. Understanding these dynamics is vital for meeting global development targets and designing equitable social protection systems.
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Gendered Dynamics of Household Poverty publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in gendered dynamics of household poverty across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Female-headed household: A household in which a woman is recognised as the principal decision-maker and income provider.
Feminisation of poverty: The phenomenon whereby women represent a disproportionately large share of the poor population.
Household headship: The status conferred on an individual deemed the primary economic actor and authority within a domestic unit.
Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition: A statistical technique that divides observed differences in outcomes between groups into explained and unexplained components.
References
- Paving the way to understanding female-headed households: Variation in household composition across 103 low- and middle-income countries. Journal of Global Health (2022).
- Changes in gender differences in household poverty in Kenya. Cogent Economics & Finance (2023).
- Women Left Behind? Poverty and Headship in Africa. Demography (2017).
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