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Women, especially women of color, in the United States are more likely to live in poverty than men, and they need robust, targeted solutions to ensure their long-term economic security.
Advancing Racial Equity and Justice, Building an Economy for All, Poverty, Women’s Health and Rights, Women’s Issues, Women’s Economic Security+4 More
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This fact sheet contains a correction.
In the United States, more women than men live in poverty. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, of the 38.1 million people living in poverty in 2018, 56 percent—or 21.4 million—were women.*1 The coronavirus pandemic has put individuals and families at an increased risk of falling into poverty in the United States, as they face greater economic insecurity, due in large part to unprecedented unemployment that has disproportionately affected women.2 Congress’ emergency unemployment assistance during the first few months of the pandemic staved off a predicted spike in the poverty rate; federal economic support must be extended throughout the duration of this fluctuating crisis to prevent an increase in the number of families living in poverty in the long term.3 Moreover, research has shown that the cost and financial burden of medical expenses in the United States pushes millions of families into poverty—a foreboding fact to consider in the midst of a global health pandemic.4 Illustratively, before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded coverage and lowered certain health costs, a leading cause of personal bankruptcy was medical debt, resulting from unexpected or unaffordable medical expenses.5
The following facts present a snapshot of women in poverty, explain why women experience higher rates of poverty, and explore the policy solutions that can best ensure lasting economic security for women and their families.
The poverty estimates included in this fact sheet are based on the federal poverty line, or the minimum annual income for individuals and families determined by the U.S. government to pay for necessities. In 2018, the poverty line was set at an annual income of $13,064 for a single individual younger than age 65 and $25,465 for a family of four with two adults and two children.*6
While the federal poverty line is an important measure of economic insecurity and is widely used to determine eligibility for many public assistance programs, it is narrow and outdated.7 It takes into account the cost of food as a proportion of families’ expenses, but it leaves out geographical differences and other essential costs of living, such housing, transportation, child care, and medical costs. One study8 found that more than 50 million households struggle to pay for basic necessities such as food, housing, and health care—despite only 16 million of them being officially classified as “in poverty.” Another study9 found that based on an adjusted inflation measure, at least 3.2 million more people live in poverty than are counted by the federal government. However, due to the ubiquity of the federal poverty line and its real implications in determining people’s eligibility for various programs, the authors define poverty as individuals falling below 100 percent of the federal poverty line, unless otherwise specified.
Women experience higher rates of poverty than men. In 2018, 12.9 percent of women lived in poverty compared with 10.6 percent of men.*10 Nearly 10 million women lived in deep poverty, defined as falling below 50 percent of the federal poverty line.11
Women of nearly all races and ethnicities face higher rates of poverty than their male counterparts. (see Figure 1) The highest rates of poverty are experienced by American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) women, Black women, and Latinas. About 1 in 4 AIAN women live in poverty—the highest rate of poverty among women or men of any racial or ethnic group.
Figure 1
Black women, Latinas, and AIAN women are also disproportionately represented among women living in poverty. (see Figure 2) While Latinas represent 18.1 percent of all women in the U.S. population, they constitute 27.1 percent of women in poverty. Similarly, Black women represent 22.3 percent of women in poverty but make up only 12.8 percent of all women in the U.S. population.
Figure 2
Unmarried mothers have higher rates of poverty than married women, with or without children, and unmarried women without children. (see Figure 3) Almost one-quarter of unmarried mothers live below the poverty line. In 2018, 11.9 million children younger than age 18 lived in poverty, making up 31.1 percent of those living in poverty.*12
Figure 3
Poverty rates for women and men are nearly even throughout childhood, but the gap widens significantly for women ages 18 to 44—during prime childbearing years—and again for women age 75 and older. (see Figure 4) Between ages 25 and 34, women are 69 percent more likely than men of the same age to live in poverty. While the gap in poverty rates between women and men narrows after age 34, it never closes throughout their adult life, and it actually widens again in old age: 13.2 percent of women 75 years and older live in poverty compared with 8.8 percent of men the same age.
Figure 4
Women with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty than both men with disabilities and individuals without disabilities. (see Figure 5) Women with disabilities have a poverty rate of 22.9 percent, compared with 17.9 percent for men with disabilities and 11.4 percent for women without disabilities.
Figure 5
LGBTQ women experience higher rates of poverty than cisgender straight women and men due to the intersections of discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. A 2019 survey by UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute found that 17.9 percent of lesbian cisgender women, 29.4 percent of bisexual cisgender women, and 29.4 percent of transgender people lived in poverty, compared with 17.8 percent of straight cisgender women and 13.4 percent of straight cisgender men.13 They also found a similarly high poverty rate among gender-nonconforming people.14 Unfortunately, the Current Population Survey does not collect data about individual respondents’ self-disclosed sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI), and only a handful of federal surveys collect SOGI data.15 Federal data collection must be improved to include the collection of SOGI data, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and other factors, to ensure a better understanding of the lived realities of all LGBTQ individuals.16
The effects of sexism and racism on institutional structures and across society limit the employment opportunities available to women, availability of caregiving supports, access to public social assistance programs, and more, leading to higher rates of poverty among women, particularly women of color, compared with men. Some of the interrelated causes include the following factors.
On average, women earn less than men—and the wage gaps are wider for most women of color. Based on 2018 U.S. Census Bureau data, women working full time, year-round earn an average of 82 cents for every $1 earned by their male counterparts.17 For every $1 earned by white, non-Hispanic men, Latinas earn 54 cents, AIAN women earn 57 cents, Black women earn 62 cents. Asian women overall earn about 90 cents, however women belonging to certain Asian subgroups experience much larger wage gaps.18 Not only do more women than men struggle to cover everyday expenses due to the gender wage gap, but the gap compounds over a lifetime, meaning women end up with fewer resources and savings than men. This represents a significant factor contributing to the gender disparity in poverty rates among women and men age 75 and older.
The gender wage gap is driven by a host of factors, including, but not limited to, differences in jobs or industries worked, hours worked, and years of experience—although differences in occupation or education level do not explain away the gap.19 Discrimination based on gender, race, and/or ethnicity plays a significant role in the wage gap, depressing women’s earnings both directly, by paying women unequally, and indirectly, through sex- and race-based structural biases that can influence the jobs women hold and the number of hours they work.
Women are less likely to have the savings and wealth necessary to weather financial shocks and provide for themselves and their families throughout their lifetimes. The gender wealth gap is informed by numerous factors, including the fact that women earn less than men; are more likely to be denied mortgages and to be overcharged for them; are particularly vulnerable to predatory lending; hold more debt; and face other obstacles that undermine their ability to build wealth and savings.20 For example, women hold two-thirds of U.S. student loan debt, and Black women in particular graduate with more debt than any other group, regardless of gender.21 On average, a Black woman borrows a total of $37,558 to finance her education compared with $35,665 for a Black man and $31,346 for a white woman. Essential to note is that the wealth gap is significantly larger for women of color, who face both a wage gap and a wealth gap informed by both gender and racial discrimination.22
Women are disproportionately represented in certain occupations—particularly low-wage jobs—due to pervasive gender roles, expectations that women’s work is low skilled, and the systemic undervaluing of women’s labor. These factors cause women, especially women of color, to be segregated into low-wage jobs and make low wages a defining feature of women-dominated jobs.23 For example, in 2018, two of the top occupations for women had a median weekly wage of close to or below the 2018 weekly poverty threshold, $490, for a family of four: Women who are child care workers earned a median weekly wage of $492, and women who are maids and housekeepers earned $457 per week.*24 Women represent about two-thirds of workers earning the federal minimum wage—$7.25 per hour—or a few dollars above it and nearly 70 percent of tipped workers, for whom the federal subminimum wage is $2.13 per hour.25 Conversely, women are underrepresented in high-wage occupations such as engineers, in part due the professions’ demand for long hours in the office and lack of flexibility for caregiving.
The United States lacks supportive work-family policies such as adequate funding for child care, a national paid family and medical leave program, and an earned paid sick leave law, which would help women manage work and caregiving responsibilities. Reliable child care, which enables parents to participate in the labor force, is often unaffordable and hard to find, which can contribute to lower employment among mothers compared with fathers.26 The United States is an outlier among developed countries in failing to guarantee access to paid family and medical leave and paid sick leave, which would allow workers time away from work to recover from an illness, care for a sick family member, or care for a new child.27 Without these critical work-family policies, women—who perform the majority of unpaid care work for children, elderly, and disabled family members—have fewer economic opportunities and are often forced to reduce their paid work hours or leave the workforce entirely.28 Women are also more likely to be single mothers than men are to be single fathers, a driving factor of the gender differential in rates of poverty.29 In addition, among parents with children younger than age 6, 25 percent of mothers work part time, and 35 percent are out of the labor force compared with just 4 percent and 5 percent of fathers, respectively.*30 This caregiving burden on women has only worsened during the coronavirus crisis due to necessary school and child care provider closures, which are also likely contributing to the higher job losses among women.31
Disability is both a cause and consequence of poverty.32 People with disabilities face barriers to employment and have low earnings which can lead to economic hardship and poverty.33 Only 16.4 percent of women with a disability were employed in 2018, compared with 60.2 percent of women without a disability.*34 Moreover, disabled workers are more likely to work part time and in low-wage jobs without access to workplace protections and benefits.35 Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to pay workers with disabilities a fraction of the federal minimum wage.36 Poverty can also limit access to quality and preventative health care, which can lead to or aggravate a disability, perpetuating the cycle of poverty for women with disabilities.37
Domestic violence can worsen women’s economic standing in the United States, causing them to lose an average of 8 million days of paid work per year.38 A study published in 2016 found that about one-quarter to slightly more than half of women experiencing homelessness reported that domestic violence was the immediate cause.39 Financial costs to survivors of domestic violence can also increase if they need to address trauma experienced or disabilities acquired as a result of the violence.40 These facts are part of a cycle of violence that both disproportionately affects low-income women and perpetuates women’s economic insecurity.41 Over the years, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has led to lowered rates of gender-based violence in the United States, in part due to its programs and services, including local shelters, transitional housing programs, culturally specific support services, and much more.42 However, these programs and services are unable to meet the ongoing needs of survivors without significantly more funding and resources.43
Essential public social assistance programs designed to alleviate financial hardship do not provide sufficient support and are not as widely accessible as needed. Some of the most essential programs in need of enhancement include:
Lifting women out of poverty requires a variety of robust policy solutions that will ensure women’s long-term economic security. These include:
To lift women out of poverty, policy solutions must address the myriad ways that structural and societal sexism and racism uniquely burden women, depress their wages, and limit their opportunities. This includes improving vital public assistance programs, addressing workplace disparities, ensuring work-family benefits, and expanding access to lifesaving supports. These robust solutions must prioritize the needs of women of color, who are at heightened risk of poverty due to the combined effects of gender and racial discrimination. Poverty among women is not inevitable, and only intentional efforts to expand opportunities and supports for all women will ensure lasting economic security for women and their families.
Robin Bleiweis is a research associate for women’s economic security for the Women’s Initiative at the Center for American Progress. Diana Boesch is a policy analyst for women’s economic security with the Women’s Initiative at the Center. Alexandra Cawthorne Gaines is the vice president of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center.
The authors would like to thank Shilpa Phadke, Jamille Fields Allsbrook, Jocelyn Frye, Osub Ahmed, Sharita Gruberg, Rasheed Malik, Lily Roberts, Rebecca Cokley, Sarah Jane Glynn, and Richard Figueroa from the Center for American Progress for their contributions to this fact sheet. Special thanks to Justin Schweitzer for his thorough fact check and invaluable edits and suggestions.
* Correction, August 7, 2020: Some of the language in this fact sheet identified 2018 data reported in the 2019 Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, incorrectly as 2019 data. These years were corrected to 2018. For consistent comparison, 2019 data from other sources were updated to reflect 2018 data, when available.
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Vice President, Poverty to Prosperity
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The Basic Facts About Women in Poverty – Center for American Progress
