r problems that seem to lead to increased poverty among women is that the juxtaposition of lower fertility, increased schooling and economic downturns in the 1980s and 1990s, which led many women to work in low-paid or non-market activities. In addition, many more women participate in unpaid community and volunteer activities (Buvinic, 1997).
The social problem is the increase of women living below the poverty line, according to current income standards, as well as falling behind in terms of general well-being. Some of the reasons given include those discussed by Buvinic. However, there are several perspectives about the fundamental causes of the existence of this social problem, including the feminist perspective and the structural fundamentalist perspective.
Feminists tend to see the problem in terms of gender disrimination and systemic mistreatment of both women and children. They see it as the result of women's unequal treatment, and inability to obtain either protection from male violence or help with education and services that would move them out of poverty.
Feminists also tend to see poverty as and interconnection of several different forms of discrimination and systemic oppression. For example, Mari Matsuda (1997) discussed poverty as the result of the interrelationship of several factors, including racism, homophobia, and sexism. According to her, lack of understanding of race issues has resulted in a one-sided analysis of the causes of poverty.
Endemic racism has led to a critique of poverty that over-emphasizes values and the "culture of poverty," as Ruth Sidel (1996) termed it. Because of racism, the poor are generally viewed as primarily minority in composition. This minority is attributed characteristics which lead people to assume that those are the cause of the poverty. People misidentify the consequences of racism and sexism as the causes of poverty (Matsuda, 1997).
According to the femini...