Latest Poverty Data Highlight Critical Need to Strengthen Social Safety Net

Women 32% More Likely to Be Poor Than Men

September 16, 2010 -

The Census Bureau poverty data released today show the largest number of poor people in the 51 years that poverty has been measured, 43.56 million, and the highest overall poverty rate, 14.3%, since 1994.  The poverty rate for single mothers increased to 38.5%, the highest rate since 1998.

The large gender poverty gap that has persisted since poverty measurement began continued in 2009.  Adult women were thirty two percent more likely to be poor than adult men in 2009, with a poverty rate of 13.9% compared to the 10.5% rate for men.   16.4 million adult women were poor, compared to 11.7 million adult men. Legal Momentum today issued a report detailing the disparities, Reading Between the Lines: Women's Poverty in the United States, 2009.

Interim Legal Momentum President Rachael Pine states, “The increased poverty and the continuing gender poverty gap underscore the need for a social safety net that is accessible and adequate. Currently, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, the national welfare program for families with children, is neither: only a minority of eligible poor families are receiving benefits and the assistance provided fails to cover even the most basic essentials of food and shelter. The increasingly large plague of poverty in America warrants an equally strong response: Congress and the Administration must act to reform TANF now.”
 
For more information on Legal Momentum’s work to strengthen the social safety and reform Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, visit Women and Poverty at www.legalmomentum.org.