Volume 9 – Issue 3 – 2005
DeAnne K. Hilfinger Messias, Margaret K. DeJong, and Kerry McLoughlin
Lance Hannon and Robert DeFina
Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo and Alex Chika Ezeh
“A ‘Pauperization of Motherhood’?: Single Motherhood and Women’s Poverty over Time”
Karen Christopher
University of Louisville
Abstract: While the relationship between single motherhood and poverty generates a great deal of debate, little research explores mothers’ poverty over time or the effects of rising single motherhood on women’s poverty over time. This paper uses Current Population Survey data to assess the extent to which mothers’ relative poverty rates increased throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s. It goes on to ask how single motherhood affects women’s poverty rates over time. Results show that mothers’ poverty rates increased from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s, after which time mothers’ poverty rates generally no longer increased – neither in an absolute sense, nor relative to the poverty rates of others. Regarding causes of women’s poverty over time, increases in single motherhood only slightly raised women’s poverty rates in the 1990s. Increases in women’s employment and educational attainment, however, played an important role in reducing women’s poverty rates. The paper concludes by applying these results to debates about single motherhood and welfare reform.
“Expanding the Concept of Women’s Work: Volunteer Work in the Context of Poverty”
DeAnne K. Hilfinger Messias
University of South Carolina
Margaret K. DeJong
Hopital Lumiere (Haiti)
and
Kerry McLoughlin
University of South Carolina
Abstract: This qualitative study explored the community volunteer experiences of women living in the context of poverty. A feminist narrative perspective informed the interpretation of the data. The narrative themes identified and discussed were: volunteer work in the context of poverty; the invisible work of discovery and figuring things out; and the community work of mobilizing, organizing, and connecting with others. The findings demonstrate the positive impact of volunteer work on individual women, their families, and communities and contribute to the expansion of the conceptualization of women’s work. Implications for public policies and organizational practices related to poverty, work, and volunteerism are discussed.
“Violent Crime in African American and White Neighborhoods: Is Poverty’s Detrimental Effect Race-Specific?”
Lance Hannon
Villanova University
and
Robert DeFina
Villanova University
Abstract: The social disorganization and anomie perspectives generally suggest that poverty’s criminogenic effect is racially invariant. These perspectives imply that policies that alleviate economic deprivation will equally reduce rates of violent crime in neighborhoods that are predominantly white and neighborhoods that are predominantly black. In contrast, several social commentators have suggested that alleviating poverty will be a relatively ineffective crime reduction strategy in predominantly black areas. Existing empirical research on this issue has been mostly at the city level, and almost entirely cross-sectional. The present study examines potential racial differences in the longitudinal relationship between neighborhood poverty and violent crime rates. We use iteratively reweighted least squares, a robust regression technique, to estimate race-specific effects for Cleveland census tracts, 1990-2000. The results are supportive of the racial invariance hypothesis. Reductions in neighborhood poverty appear to produce similar reductions in violent crime in white and black neighborhoods.
“Women in Street Prostitution: The Result of Poverty and the Brunt of Inequity”
Jacquelyn Monroe
Ohio State University
Abstract: Street prostitution is intrinsically related to poverty. Female prostitutes, in disproportionate numbers, are known to be ethnic minorities who are impoverished, uneducated and possess few marketable skills. Viewed as depraved individuals, lawmakers have and continue to chastise these women through the law. Consistency in enforcing prostitution laws, which includes laws against patronizing prostitutes, nonetheless, has been and continues to be inequitable. The female prostitute or sex worker continues to be the target of enforcement strategies, while the illegal activities of the sex buyer are minimized or completely ignored. Sentencing practices have also followed suit. The aim of this article, then is to 1) discuss Africana womanist theory in the context of prostitution; 2) present structurally centered arguments for why poor and minority women resort to prostitution; 3) discuss prostitution laws; 4) examine the differential practices of law officials between the female prostitute and the male customer (a.k.a, the John) with a specific focus on John Schools; and 5) to propose short term and long term solutions that may start to redress the impact of structural racism, sexism and classism on the female prostitute.
“A Qualitative Assessment of Support Mechanisms in Informal Settlements of Nairobi, Kenya”
Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo
African Institute for Health and Development
and
Alex Chika Ezeh
African Population and Health Research Center
Abstract: Urban poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is highly concentrated in an increasingly isolated segment of the population living in sprawling slum settlements and shantytowns of most cities. The extreme deprivation in these areas poses serious survival challenges that these people have to grapple with daily. This paper explores informal support mechanisms used by the urban poor in dealing with three main challenges: lack of food, illness and bereavement. It is based on forty focus group discussions conducted in four slum communities in Nairobi, Kenya. The findings show that community members, despite their crippling poverty, extend support to others when faced with serious problems that go beyond what may be considered general or commonplace. The study makes a strong case for development and implementation of public safety nets accessible to the poorer segments of the urban population.
“Redistributive Schemes That Skirt Poverty: Reconsidering Social Justice in Light of Van Parijs and Zucker”
Richard K. Caputo
Yeshiva University
Abstract: This paper examines the unconditional basic income (UBI) and national share of income schemes respectively of Philippe Van Parijs and Ross Zucker. It discusses the implications of each on notions of and reform efforts for social or distributive justice. The core critique is that neither Van Parijs nor Zucker come to terms adequately with absolute poverty when addressing issues of income inequality. Reducing income inequality, a worthy goal for a variety of reasons (e.g., equalizing access to political power, creating greater social harmony), may reduce relative poverty while nonetheless ignoring absolute poverty. The author argues that poverty reduction should remain the central focus of theoretical and practical initiatives justifying income redistribution. That is, attending to basic need is necessarily elemental, can be made consistent with the idea of a UBI, and enhances the force of the concept of social or distributive justice. The paper concludes with a brief sketch of a progressively unconditional guaranteed income scheme.