Inequalities Between Women and Men Regarding Poverty

     Even though the power of females is increasing in our country today, women’s poverty is still a relevant issue that Canadian women are constantly facing. The 2001 census shows that overall women have a lower income than men, and that 16% of the Canadian female population lived in poverty before taxes compared to the 13% of men that lived in poverty before taxes (CASW, 2004). Some feminists would critique this issue as being part of the reason that males dominate, and women sub-dominate in our current society.

     According to the Canadian Association of Social Work (2004), the major reason for women’s lower income is not related to the occupation itself, but the hours worked. In my opinion, this is a logical explanation because women play many roles when it comes to family. This restricts women from being at the workplace for great periods of time.  I agree with Mullaly’s (2007) conception of women being ‘cradle-to-grave’ caregivers. Ladies really do not have an option once they have children. The socialist feminists have a good point when they say that women produce the next generation and care for our current generation (Mullaly, 2007). Part of the responsibility of being a parent is to stay with their baby until they are ready to go to daycare or school. When a woman’s parent retires or needs extra elder care, parents tend to rely more on the daughter’s care more than the son’s. Perhaps it’s a natural habit that we have constructed as a society. Women are mostly expected to stay home and care for kids and do the housework while the male goes into the labor force to provide for his dependant family. According to the radical feminists male domination is caused by a woman and the children’s dependency on him (Mullaly, 2007). If the woman does not bring income to the household I agree with this view because the family needs to eat and live out of someone’s pocket. 

     Statistics have shown that family status plays a big role when it comes to women living in poverty. The 2001 census found that 42% of unattached women aged 18 to 64 lived in poverty, compared to the 12% that lived in families (CASW, 2004). In my opinion, this finding is not at all astonishing as I can imagine how difficult it is to live a preferred lifestyle with only one income coming in.  It is also more of a struggle if the female has children. Single parent mothers have the lowest average total income among all families in Canada (CASW, 2004). This does not go to mean that women must rely on another partner for financial purposes, but it goes to show how helpful it could be at times. Elderly women come to mind as another example of how helpful it is to have extra income. Elderly women overall have a lower income than elderly men (CASW, 2004) and they constitute nearly 60% of the senior population and 70% of any person aged 85+ (Mullaly, 2004). Death is a biological factor that is nobody’s fault; however it is still horrible that the female is left behind suffering alone in poverty. Women of visible minority groups are also a targeted group whose average employment income is lower than men’s (CASW, 2004). Anti-racist feminists would say this is discrimination to both race and women. Black feminists would comply that it is already their duty to identify and fight for racial rights, and on top of that they have to stand up for women’s rights so that the income is fair (Mullaly, 2004).

     In my opinion, gender should not be considered a factor that determines your income. I do not agree with the liberal feminists who deny any differences whatsoever between men and women (Mullaly, 2004), because there are certainly unique aspects that each gender has, which does prohibit women from doing certain work that is particular to men. However, I do believe that women should be treated fairly and that their skills, experiences, and knowledge should determine their future or incomes. Men and women both have brains filled with knowledge and personality, and everybody is unique in their own way. I think that this is what should identify a person’s future and current life; regardless of being a woman or man.

     Therefore, I believe the government should take feminist perspective into account to make a policy exclusively for women who are by all means cradle-to-grave caregivers. These women are giving up so much of their own time and effort, which comes out of their freedom and income. In our society today care giving professions are perceived as mainly a woman's job. I think that by changing the view society has on care giving professions, we would not be as dependent on women to leave their personal jobs to care especially for the young or aging. We cannot simply change the view of society though as it is a long and not so stable task. The government should use sources such as the media and campaigning strategies to normalize men also doing care giving jobs like teachers, nurses or health care aids at personal care homes.  So in the meantime that our generation changes the outlook, I think the government should be paying women for taking time off their own work to give care to others. It is wonderful that our government offers a maternity leave and child tax benefits. I believe that by adding a leave of absence policy to care for a sick parent or grand-parent perhaps, women should also receive a benefit for this. Obviously not anything you could get rich off, but enough for daily necessities. Women deserve to have time to themselves, and since most women cannot do this at least we should be rewarding them for all the extra time and effort they have put into society. 

-Dora

References:

Canadian Association of Social Workers.  (2004). Women’s income and poverty in Canada revisited. Retrieved from http://www.rebelles.org/files/womenpoverty_e.pdf

Mullaly, B. (2007). Feminist, Anti-Racist, and Postmodern Critique. In The New Structural Social Work (3^rd ed., pp. 159-186). Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.