Disparity of Life Expectancy vs Women’s Poverty: A Sociological Appraisal
© 2021 Mohammad Taghi Sheykhi, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Mini Review
Sociology of population analyzes all parts and dimensions of population in a comparative manner. In that, life expectancy disparity is reflected too. Because of life span differences of men and women, women especially in developing countries face more problems and other poverty-related issues. Shortage/lack of income as an effective factor leads to many economic and health issues for the women with special reference to the developing countries where many elderly people are deprived of insurance, pensions etc. Instead, gender biases seem to reflect in various instances [1]. Lonely women expect freedom, respect and dignity in their old age, but, because of poverty they are not mostly accomplished. Many elderly women do not have any wealth of their own. So, they have to possibly depend on their children in their old age. The problem especially with the elderly women at current time is that, they are on the one hand increasing, and newborns are very few, or not at all within young generations on the other hand, and if the cycle continues in this way, older women n less developed countries will face more serious problems in future. The phenomenon of feminization of poverty was introduced in 1970s, and becoming popular in 1990s through the documents of the United Nations. It is still continuing in the developing world [2]. Feminization of poverty being a relative concept based on womenmen comparison, it is much because of disparity of life expectancy between the two genders. If it is slightly reduced among men than women, then it is called feminization of poverty for women [3]. Factors playing part in feminization of women’s poverty could include change of family structure, women’s low-paid occupations, low access to public benefits, gender wage gap and many more. Such a poverty among women is widely observable in the countries of West Asia, African countries and Latin American countries. Regardless of life expectancy difference, lonely mothers are at a high risk of poverty.
Table 1: Disparity of Life Expectancy in Different Communities in the World 2020
| Total | Males | Females | |
|---|---|---|---|
| World | 73 | 70 | 75 |
| More Developed | 79 | 77 | 82 |
| Less Developed | 71 | 69 | 73 |
| Middle Income | 72 | 70 | 74 |
| Low Income | 64 | 62 | 66 |
Households with single mothers are really households with poverty. They cannot easily handle their daily lives, their needs etc. Lack of income and resources make their lives hard and even worse. There is an increase in single mother households in every country in the world because of disparity in life expectancy and divorce. Single mothers are almost the poorest women, especially in developing countries, and their children generally the most disadvantaged as compared to their normal peers. Different factors are responsible for this rise including wars and divorces in many countries. In many cases, migrant male workers who leave households, mothers have to take care of household needs, children etc. Female-headed households have 50% of financial support compared with maleheaded households. Such households do not have access to resources and opportunities including health needs and education [5]. Very few mothers in poverty have any college degrees to work to meet the ends or essential needs.
References
- Chant S (2006) Rethinking the Feminization of Poverty in Relation to Aggregate Gender Indices 7: 201-220.
- United Nations (1996) Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly on the Report of the Second Committee Women in Development.
- Medeiros M (2008) is there a Feminization of Poverty in Latin America? World Development 36: 115-127.
- World Population Data Sheet 2020. Population Reference Bureau, Washington DC.
- Shayne VT (1991) “Double Victims: Poor Women and AIDS”, Women and Health 17: 21-37.