The Gender of Poverty in an Aging Population

Recent studies have documented an increasing feminization of poverty, especially among households with children and among elderly households. Because those studies have been based mainly on aggregate data, they do not provide a clear picture of the conditions of gender differences in the risk of poverty. Using individual-level data from a 1986 survey of Florida's resident population aged 55 and older, the authors analyze the gender differential relative to several correlates of poverty-for example, race/ethnicity, education, income sources, and living arrangements. In addition to specifying conditions under which older women have faced greatest risks of poverty, the analyses provide an estimate of the extent to which poverty is gendered in later stages of the life course, net of other “determinants” or correlates of poverty.