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At What Cost A Room of Her Own? Factors Contributing to the Feminization of Poverty Among Prime-Age Women, 1939–1959

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Linda Barrington  and
Cecilia A. Conrad
Linda Barrington
Affiliation:
Assistant Professors of Economics at Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027
Cecilia A. Conrad
Affiliation:
Assistant Professors of Economics at Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027
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Abstract

This article investigates the feminization of poverty prior to 1960 by focusing on three factors that contributed to the increase in the propensity to form female-headed households and to the poverty rate among such households. Compared with 1939, households headed by prime-age women in 1959 included fewer adults, thereby reducing earnings potential. The earnings level at which such women formed independent households was lower relative to the poverty line; and although higher earnings allowed more women to form independent households, the increase was not large enough to lift some of these households out of poverty.

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Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , June 1994 , pp. 342 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1994

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References

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