Poverty among women in Latin America: feminisation or over-representation?

Does poverty hit Latin American women harder than it does men?

By: Medeiros M & Costa J
Published by: UNDP International Poverty Centre (IPC) , 2006
Via: Eldis

The concept of the feminisation of poverty (the extent and multi-faceted impacts of poverty on women) has become widely accepted among women's advocates. This paper questions the usefulness of resources invested in policies based on this concept. The prime objective of the paper is to investigate the occurrence of this feminisation. To this end, the authors analyse different definitions of the feminisation of poverty at the country data using recent survey data. The countries studied are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Venezuela. The study used microdata from household surveys in each eight countries.