Sociology Final

Women and Poverty Rates

- Poverty rates are higher for women than men. 13.8% of women poor compared to 11.1% men. - Poverty gap between women and men widens significantly between ages 18 and 24, 20.6% of women are poor at that age compared to 14% of men. Gap narrows but never closes throughout adult life & more than doubles during elderly years. - Women are paid less than men, even when they have the same qualifications and work the same hours. Women earn only 77% of the dollar than men earn. - Women are segregated into low-paying occupations, and occupations dominated by women are low paid. These occupations typically also don't offer many benefits. - Pregnancy affects women's work and education opportunities more than men's. Economic costs associated with pregnancy are more significant for women than for men. Unplanned and mistimed pregnancies, in particular, can result in termination of education, keeping women from getting and sustaining solid employment. - 18% of women in female-headed low-income families don't have a high school diploma (compared to just 5% of higher-income peers... who don't have a diploma?), 77% of higher-come working moms had some education beyond high school compared to 51% of low-income moms. - Even for those who have a high school diploma and qualify for post-secondary education, access can be limited due to tuition costs, transportation issues, and class schedules that conflict with standard working hours. Also lack of affordable child care is huge college and getting to work barrier. Costs continue to rise & state aid continues to decline. - Women are poorer than men in all racial and ethnic groups. - Women of color are more likely to be in poverty. 26.5% African American women poor compared to 11.6% White women. - Over a quarter of black women and nearly a quarter of Latina women are poor. Black & Latina women are at least twice as likely as white women to be living in poverty. - With that said (referring to statistic above), only 1/4 of all adult women w/ income below the poverty line are single mothers, meaning that over half of all poor adult women (54%) are single with no dependent children. Due to lack of life chances compared to men? - Women in poverty - 54% single w/ no children, 26% single w/ dependent children, 12% married with dependent children, 8% married with no dependent children. - While families headed by a working mom make up less than 1/4 of all working families, they make up nearly 40% of all low-income ones. - More mothers are the primary source of income. New record of families rely on women's earnings, nearly 2/3 of whom are single moms. - Poverty increased when women enter child-bearing years & senior years. 13% of women over 75 yrs old are poor compared to 6% of men. - "Pink Colar Jobs" 43% of employed women work in 20 job categories that pay less than $23,000/yr. Many are working retail and service industries. Biggest percentage are home health aides (~$10/hr or $21,000/yr) ------------------------------------------------ Federal Solutions: - Women receive the pay they deserve & equal work conditions. - Have access to higher-paying jobs. - Address the lack of benefits in these jobs. Have affordable child & elder care, as well as access to quality flexible work and paid family leave. Paid time off for sickness. - Receive the support they need through expanded tax credits to help meet the costs of raising their families. - Receive contraceptive services they need so that they can plan their families. - Receive the support and protection they need to leave violent situations while maintaining job and housing stability. - Increasing their access to non-traditional jobs, such as manufacturing or transportation, could increase their earnings by at least 30%.

Unpaid Household Labor

- "Second Shift" & unpaid care grows (69%), Arlie Hochschild. - Women spend more time providing unpaid caregiving than men. - Women more likely to (69%) care for children, elderly, or disabled family members. - Combining unpaid caregiving with paid work can be challenging, and women are more likely to work part-time or take time out of the workforce to care for family. - 23% mothers out of workforce compared to 1% of fathers.

Second Shift

- "Second Shift" & unpaid care grows (69%)..

Title IX

- A federal law that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

Welfare Myths

- Also known as TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) - was never intended to be a comprehensive antipoverty program. - States have no legal obligation to support poor families with cash. - Not everyone who is poor gets welfare. To qualify, you typically need to have income below half the poverty line. In some states, the income limit is much lower. - Reducing poverty is not one of TANF's purposes. The amount families receive does not come close to lifting them out of poverty. - Even though TANF was intended to assist needy families and promote work, the program devotes relatively few resources to either purpose. In 2010, 28.8% of TANF funds nationally was spent on cash payments to needy families. Less than 8% goes to activities that help people find work. 63% is spent on social service programs, childcare, preventing out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and encouraging the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. - The amount the federal government gives states for TANF has not changed since 1997. $16.5 billion has not changed with inflation. States obligated to contribute their own funds. - The program was not responsive to the recession or the recent rise in poverty. Unemployment rates doubled, number of families receiving cash assistance grew by 13%, poverty rate increased from 11% to 15%, child poverty rose from 16% to 22%. - Some TANF policies discourage states from helping participants find work. In some cases giving states an incentive to drop families from their caseloads instead of pushing people towards employment. - Almost half of TANF cases include only children, with no financial support for the adults. 4/10 of these children are living with relatives other than parents, and the rest live with parents who have been disqualified for a variety of reasons.

Power

- An individual or group ability to influence others.

Gender Gap in Politics

- Differing political opinions and voting patterns between women and men

Domestic Violence

- Domestic and sexual violence can push women into a cycle of poverty by leading to job loss, poor health, and homelessness. - It is estimated that victims of intimate partner violence collectively lose almost 8 million days of paid work each year because of the violence perpetrated against them by current or former husbands, boyfriends, or dates. - Half of the cities surveyed identified domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

- Federal law enacted in 1993 that requires employers to grant 12 weeks of unpaid leave to a parent to care for newborn or adopted children or to care for a sick child, spouse, or parent family household.

Equal Pay Act

- First federal legislation requiring equal pay for equal work.

Power Elite

- Model of the state that sees power as stemming from the influence of a powerful ruling class.

Second Wave Feminism

- Second-wave feminism is a period of feminist activity and thought that first began in the early 1960s in the United States, and eventually spread throughout the Western world and beyond. In the United States the movement lasted through the early 1980s. - Major social change, such as women's participation in the labor force, and increased prosperity forced a major social awareness movement that questioned the roles of gender in society. - Two movements emerged within the broader second wave feminist movement, which were the more mainstream and radical elements of feminism. While one worked to change society from within, using legislation and social pressure, the other, radical movement questions fundamentally if society's hierarchical and patriarchal nature were the main problem.

Single Parents and Poverty

- Single mothers are penalized in pay for each child (motherhood penalty vs. fatherhood bonus, pay increasing). - Single mothers earn about 2/3 of what single fathers make. - Women are more likely to bear the costs of raising children. 8/10 custodial parents are women, and custodial mothers are twice as likely to be poor as custodial fathers.

ERA

- The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for all citizens regardless of gender; it seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters.

Poverty Line for Families

- The minimum level of income determined per locality to remain above a state of poverty.

19th Amendment

- The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. - A right known as woman suffrage. - The result in response to Seneca Falls convention 1848, when women's rights movement launched on a national level.

Single Parent Fathers

- Typically have much closer of an emotional relationship with their children. - 2.6 million, more than twice the rate of growth of single mothers. - 8% of all households are single father. - 41% of single fathers have a co-partner (girlfriend, grandparent), compared to 16% of women who have a co-partner (boyfriend, grandparent). - Court cases with children custody go to fathers more now due to financial reasons. - Reflection of the changing role of fathers in general. They are, arguably, where women were a decade ago in their awareness that they want a different life/work equation but are not yet sure what theirs should be. Also wanting a different relationship with their children than their own fathers were expected to have. - Married fathers are more likely to be older, better off financially, and white.

Gender Division of Labor in Family

- Unless things change, girls today will spend hundreds of thousands more hours than boys doing unpaid work simply because society assumes it's their responsibility. - It ends up robbing women of their potential. When women are too busy cleaning and cooking, they have less time for paid work. - Girls in many countries fall behind in school because they're swamped with tedious chores. - The unpaid labor gap is especially large in poor countries. - Reducing women's unpaid labor from five hours per day to three can increase a country's female labor-force participation rate by 10 percent. If women participated in the economy at the same levels as men, global GDP could increase by 12%. - If women had access to clean water, it changes everything about their time. - Couples should start having conversations about how they can redistribute unpaid chores more fairly. More American dads pushing vacuum cleaners and more Tanzanian husbands volunteering to help his wife fetch water. This means men sacrificing free time and this allowing for women to participate in the economy. Redistribution of chores. Ex: "No one leaves the kitchen until mom does" - these chores then got done a lot faster.

Cult of Domesticity

- Victorian ideal that made women responsible for the moral and everyday affairs of the home. - Based on middle-class lifestyle, woman's role/icon for femininity - good manners, restraint, moral uprightness, purity, devotion, selflessness. - "Domesticity" - the home and family is the center of religious, cultural, and emotional life.

Women's Movement

- seeking equal rights and opportunities for women in their economic activities, their personal lives, and politics. It is recognized as the "second wave" of the larger feminist movement. While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women's legal rights, such as the right to vote, the second-wave feminism of the "women's movement" peaked in the 1960s and '70s and touched on every area of women's experience—including family, sexuality, and work.