The Interplay of Gender Inequality and Poverty in Society

There is intrinsic relation between the poverty and gender differences in the society. In sociology although the relationship between the gender and poverty is obscures, evidences suggest that poverty can be considered as one of the potential outcomes of the gender inequality in the society. This essay is going to present a comprehensive discussion on the interrelationship between the poverty and the society. Here the essay will present the sociological perspective regarding the interrelationship between the gender and poverty thereby discussing how this interrelation impacts on the children and young people. The essay will demonstrate that how poverty and gender inequality are interrelated and what sociological factors are associated with these interrelations. Finally, the essay will present a summary of the entire discussion, in which the main points of the entire discussion will be presented.

As mentioned by Adeyeye et al. (2019), in sociology poverty is the social condition in which people do not have the financial ability to meet their needs such as education, proper nutrition, proper housing, best quality foods, hygienic and positive environment and healthcare support. Evidences suggest that, gender inequalities can be considered as the reason behind the poverty, in which women are more likely to be provided with less resources in the society as compared to the men. While describing the poverty and gender based on social condition of the children’s and young people, it can be stated that, there are many female children belonging to poor family are more likely to be sent to the rural schools in which they are devoid of proper education infrastructure as compared to the male children of the same family. In this context Aisa et al. (2019) argued that, although there are some evidences that show that women are more prevalent towards the poor socio-economic facilities than men, there are lack of evidences behind the concept. The authors further stated that, in modern era, women get the equal education, employment opportunities and rights as compared to the men which pose question on the validity of the sociological concept that women are more vulnerable to deal with the poverty than men. There are also manty criticisms regarding the concept presented by (Adeyeye et al. 2019), which show the fact that, female children residing in the rural and semi-urban arears still face the discrimination regarding their educational rights, in which the male children are send to schools but not the female children. On supporting this viewpoint Atozou et al. (2017). mentioned that, female children residing in rural and tribal areas are more likely to be forced for child labour as compared to male children for providing financial support to their family. Therefore, these female children lack their scope of developing proper professional and personal skills by getting proper education thereby are devoid of any employment opportunities in near future in reputed workplace which automatically impacts on their socio-economic condition.

Evidences suggest that, the common example of interrelation between the gender and poverty is that, most of the single mothers in the England and Wales are unable to provide the good education, proper nutrition and good healthcare to their children due to lack of financial stability of the family (Bradshaw et al. 2017). Many reports show that, in the England and South Wales there are many families in which women are the only earning members but the salary that they get from the firm is far less that of the men working in same designation. As mentioned by Boudet et al. (2018), there are many reasons that are associated with intrinsic relation between the poverty and the gender. The most important reason is that women have less physical strength than that of men, which makes limitation for them while choosing the jobs. For example, men can be involved in laborious work and earn huge money by working overtime, while in case of single mothers as they have to take care of their children, they have limited options for getting a suitable employment that will be relevant to their time schedule. On that perspectives it can be stated that poverty is gender-specific.

As mentioned by Esariti and Sabana (2019), there many sociological factors that are associated with the interrelationship between the gender and poverty. These factors are socio-economic condition of people, social perspective on gender, stereotyping, educational facilities, healthcare facilities, social support, cultural values and tradition. As mentioned by Campbell (2018), socio-economic condition is strongly associated with gender, in which men are provided with more socio-economic privileges than the women. For example, as compared to women who have to manage both the home and the professional field, men can fit themselves to any work schedule which provides them with extra employment benefits. exudences suggest that many single mothers in the South Wales have to leave their jobs to take care of their children and parents. On the other hand, Bradshaw et al. (2017) mentioned that many times women cannot adapt themselves to all the work environment like men which then developed the difference between their salary as well as the socio-economic condition. For example, men can better deal with the workplace bully, abuse and harassment than women therefore their rate of consistency of doing a job is more than women. This is why children residing in the women-lead families in rural and semi urban areas of UK are more likely to be devoid of proper schooling facilities, good education infrastructure, nutrition foods, proper healthcare facilities and positive family environment as compared to children belonging to the men-led families.

Other factors that are associated with the relationship between the poverty and the gender is stereotyping and social perspectives. As mentioned by Espinoza-Delgado and Klasen (2018), although some social activists say that women are provided with the similar opportunities in every sector like men, the real scenario is far different from this viewpoint. The authors also mentioned that in this 20th century, there is still the stereotyping and social prejudices that pose negative impact on human psychology regarding the abilities, educational rights and facilities for women. In modern era, there are still the stereotyping trend that develops discrimination and bias regarding women’s rights and facilities as compared to male, such as social prejudices suggest that women are made only for homemaking and baby caring, and they would not be able to manage the professional and personal life together perfectly. A mentioned by Faiza et al. (2019), there are many societies in the rural areas of England and Wales, in which social perception is more supportive towards the men than women, in which it is thought that adapting to the harsh work situation in the changing working field is not the cup of tea for women. These backdated and baseless social perspectives against women are considered as the potential facilitator for lowering the employment and educational opportunity for women which then make a huge gap between the socio-economic condition between the women and the men.

Another important factor that contributes to the interrelationship between the poverty and the gender is lack of social support. As mentioned by Gray et al. (2019), women in the society are provided with less resources as compared to the men such as poor nutrition, lack of proper education facilities, poor healthcare facilities and lack of employment facilities. The evidence shows that, female children residing in the rural and semi-urban areas are two times more likely to suffer from the poor nutrition, lack of proper educational facility and lack of healthcare as compared to the male children. As mentioned by Lacey et al. (2020), in a family, women child faces severe discrimination and bias in terms of protecting the rights such as parental support, education, good foods and positive environment as compared to male child. Many families living in the villages and interior areas of UK, prefer to send the male children to school with the intention that the male children will provide economic support to the family while getting a good job after completing the education, whereas the female children is devoid of education which reduces their chances of becoming economically stable to support their own children in near future. Evidence also shows that, female children are provided with less healthcare facilities in society which can trigger the complicated health condition at their young age, which then affects the socio-economic condition of their entire family if they are the only earning member of their family. There is also huge discrimination regarding providing the fair work facilities to women as compared to men, such as women are more likely to suffer from harsh work environment, abuse, harassment and bully in workplace that sometimes oblige them to leave the jobs thereby affecting not only their socioeconomic stability but also pose adverse impact on the overall quality of life of their family members. As mentioned by Masud and Zainalaludin (2018) majority of women who join the offices after their delivery face severe health issues due to dealing with he works pressure such as backpain, headache, stress, anxiety and depression. The ONS report shows that men are more likely to get promotion in workplace by working same task as compared to women. The reason behind the unfair practice is considered as the perspective about women which make the employers think that women cannot be able to deal with the additional work responsibilities that that are associated with getting a promotion.

Cultural values are also associated with gender inequality and poverty in which social culture impacts on how women and men will be treated in the society and what facilities they will get from the society that can improve their socio-economic condition (McCormack-George, 2019). Evidences suggest that, poverty is strongly associated with negative and backdated culture that pose barriers on person’s physical, emotional and psychological development. As mentioned by Masud and Zainalaludin (2018), negative and backdated culture in the society reduce the changes of women to get good education and job opportunity, which are important for improving their financial condition. Evidence suggests that, women are more likely to be the victim of the backdated cultural trend, which pose potential bars on their basic rights such as getting primary education, having good nutrition, getting the social and health facilities and having the family support. It is the poor cultural values and prejudices that provoke the family members to choose their male child to get all the facilities that are important for protecting the basic rights of children but not their female child. This is why the female child is devoid of proper education, nutrition, healthcare facilities and family support, which not only impact on his or her quality of living but also impact on emotional and psychological wellbeing of child. As mentioned by Pape and Mejia-Mantilla (2018), there are many female children who work as unpaid workers in the society, in which they are provided with below quality foods and poor acumination at the expense of the hard work they do. Cases of child labour and female children trafficking are the two-potential example of the poor society culture that impacts adverse on the overall quality of lives of these female children.

As mentioned by Robertson (2018), poverty more likely to affect the women than men. Evidence suggests that there are several cases of maternal mortality during the delivery or post-partum period due to lack of proper nutritional and health care support to the new mothers. New mothers in poor families are more likely to be vulnerable to mortality as they do not get the sufficient foods, enough rest and the mental as well as physical support that they need to have good health. On the other hand, poor families also prioritise the preferences and needs of the male as compared to the females, even in case of pregnancy which enhance the chances of health complication for the would-be mothers and also for the foetus.

From the overall discission, it can be stated that, poverty and gender is strongly related to each other, in which women are more prevalent to the adverse impact of poverty. Poverty affects women more adversely than men. There are many factors that are associated with the interrelationship between poverty and the gender inequality, such as social support, society culture, trends, social perception, education, social environment, socio economic condition and healthcare. Women in a family or community are less likely to have the resources and privileges than the men. This is why gender inequality is somehow is considered as the cause of the poverty.

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