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

Linda Barrington and Cecilia A. Conrad

The Journal of Economic History, 1994, vol. 54, issue 2, 342-357

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.

Date: 1994
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