Women and Children First: Toward a U.S. Family Policy

342 Guest editorial WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST: TOWARD A U.S. FAMILY POLICY RUTH SIDEL, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology Hunter College 695 Park Avenue New York, New York 10021 The vast majority of poor people in the United States today are women and children.1 Two out of every three poor adults are women and the economic status of families headed by women2 has been declining since the 1970s.3 The impact of women's poverty on the economic status of children is even more shocking. One out of every five children under 18 and nearly one out of every four preschool children live in poverty.4 Among black children under the age of six, the poverty rate in 1987 was 48 percent; among black children living in female-headed families, 67 percent were poor.5 Among Hispanic preschool children, 42 percent were poor; among Hispanic preschool children living in female-headed families, the poverty rate was 70 percent.5 What are the factors responsible for this "feminization of poverty?" In an era in which so many gains have been made by so many women, why do millions of women and their children live without adequate resources to provide food, clothing, and shelter? A key factor in the pauperization of women is the continuing existence of a dual labor market that systematically discriminates against female workers. Women's magazines may suggest that most women work in glamorous, highly paid professions and carry a briefcase to work, but the data show that the vast majority of women work in clerical, service, and sales jobs and that working women earn only 68 cents for every dollar earned by men.4 Yet another factor is the rapid growth of female-headed families due to divorce,separation,childbearingoutsideofmarriage,and widowhood. Athird factor is the extremely high rate of teenage pregnancy, particularly outside of marriage. Other factors include a welfare system that systematically maintains its recipients significantly below the poverty line; the lack of adequate, accesJournal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 1, No. 4, Spring 1991 ___________________________Sidd________________________343 sible day care; and the lack of child support paid by men. In addition, the timeconsuming yet unpaid domestic responsibilities of women contribute to poverty . Women are the caretakers in our society. Women care for the young, women care for the old and for the sick, and they are either unpaid or grossly underpaid for their efforts. Finally, the budget cuts of the 1980s, which fell most heavily on the poor and the near-poor, have helped to propel women into poverty. Broader forces, such as debilitating unemployment and underemployment; continuing discrimination on the basis of race, class, and age; and the changing nature of the economy also contribute to the feminization of poverty. Who are the poor? Statistics, it has been said, are people with the tears washed off. When we speak of the poor, whom exactly are we talking about? During research for my book2,1 discovered their lives and their stories. We are talking about Barbara, a lean, dark-haired woman in her midthirties , who comes from a middle-class, New England background. She describes her early adult years: I came from a terrine family and when I graduated from high school I decided to go to college. During my first semester, I found that I was pregnant by the boy I was engaged to. I got married in December and when our daughter was six weeks old my husband left for Vietnam. He came back a year and a half later a different man—real quiet, withdrawn. He wouldn't talk about Vietnam then; he won't even talk about it today. Shortly after Barbara's husband returned from Vietnam, the couple invested in a home and he returned to school. But he soon felt that he could not handle "the whole scene," and he left. Barbara then took her daughter and "with no resources and no inner strength" moved into an apartment, enrolled in a local university, worked evenings, and received supplementary welfare. She had become a female head of household living in poverty. Virginia Rowan, a handsome 73-year-old widow, part Cherokee, part black, lives in...