Poverty is Sexist!: Why Gender Matters in the Fight Against Poverty
- Sharon Eseoghene Ogbuehi
- Sep 19
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 24
Poverty is one of the world’s most damaging forces. It is the root cause of countless social ills and continues to shape inequality across the globe. According to the World Bank, poverty rates have risen drastically in many countries since 2022, reversing decades of progress and undermining global efforts to achieve equality and improve living standards.
Poverty is a universal challenge and exists everywhere, but its effects are not felt equally. Poverty is gendered, and it disproportionately affects women and girls. This can be seen in many countries and their various economies. This phenomenon, known as the feminization of poverty, was first coined by Diana Pearce in 1978. It describes the trend that women represent a disproportionate percentage of the world’s poor, particularly single mothers and female-headed households. This is not just a statistic but a structural reality. Women face systemic barriers to education, property ownership, credit facilities, and equal pay. Together, these barriers trap them in cycles of poverty.
A Global Problem, but a Gendered Reality
This picture of poverty differs from country to country, but the pattern remains the same. In India, for instance, boys are more likely to continue into higher education, while girls are often pulled out of school early to prepare for marriage. In Pakistan, the rate of poverty is higher than the rate of enrollment into schools, especially for girls. In Afghanistan, 80% of the people in need are women and children. In Uganda, although legal equality exists on paper, social norms still prevent women from owning land, and land is frequently registered under the name of a woman's husband. In Tonga, women cannot legally own land under any circumstance due to a law passed in 1875.
This retrogression in curbing poverty is mirrored in Nigeria. In 2024, the country experienced a cholera outbreak, highlighting how poverty worsens preventable health crises. Diseases, such as cholera, as well as other preventable diseases, spread because of unhygienic practices, unclean water, and unhygienic food preparation and distribution systems, conditions aggravated by poverty. Women were disproportionately affected during this 2024 outbreak. They bore the heaviest burden of caring for the sick, paying for healthcare, and supporting recovery. Most of this labor was unpaid, and these women faced severe hardships as societal structures left them with little support.
Whether in classrooms, courts, hospitals or households, one things is clear, poverty wears a female face.
Gendered Dimensions of Poverty
Although poverty affects men and women, the impact is neither neutral nor evenly distributed. Poverty is inherently gendered and deepens existing inequalities that already disproportionately disadvantage women and girls. These challenges are not surface level but structural and deeply rooted in laws, cultural practices, and economic systems that restrict access to resources and opportunities, and cause women to carry heavier burdens.
Whether in classrooms, courts, hospitals or households, one things is clear, poverty wears a female face.
Structural Inequalities
The laws, rules, and customs of many societies are built in ways that benefit men and keep women disadvantaged. Men and women may hold the same job, but men are often paid more, because that’s how the structure was built—to oppress women and keep them at a stagnant level. In some countries, only men can own land, and where women do try to own land, it must be in the name of a male relative. Systems like this deny women property rights and keep them dependent. Women are also often excluded from leadership, law-making, or decision-making processes, leaving their voices absent when resources are allocated, and causing policies to not reflect their needs and voices. This cycle of dependency and the intentional devaluation of women leads to a vicious cycle of poverty for generations to come.
In some countries, only men can own land, and where women do try to own land, it must be in the name of a male relative. Systems like this deny women property rights and keep them dependent.
Education, Healthcare, and Access to Resources
Education is one of the most powerful tools against poverty, yet millions of girls are denied this right. Poverty, insecurity, and cultural practices often push girls and women out of school in countries like Pakistan, South Sudan, and Afghanistan.
Access to healthcare is also unequal. Poverty limits women's abilities to get proper medical care, leading to preventable deaths and poor family outcomes. Women are further excluded from financial opportunities like loans, land ownership or credit, keeping them dependent on men and trapped in poverty.
These barriers don't fall equally. Women with disabilities, minority women, and those in rural or conflict-affected areas often face even greater challenges, compounding their risk of poverty.
Education is one of the most powerful tools against poverty, yet millions of girls are denied this right.
Economic Disempowerment
Economic disempowerment occurs where women are deprived of economic power, resources, and opportunities, making them financially dependent and unable to take care of themselves and their dependents, thus reinforcing poverty.
Globally, women do more unpaid work than men. In many parts of Africa and Asia, women dominate agricultural labor but own less than 20% of land. Even in high-income countries, gaps remain. For example, South Korea reported a 29.3% gender pay gap in 2023.
Women’s empowerment is essential to achieving gender equality. If women are properly educated and get paid jobs rather than doing unpaid labor, this will gradually bridge the gap between men and women economically. When women are empowered economically, entire households benefit: children are more likely to be educated, families experience better health outcomes, and communities become more resilient against poverty.
Women’s empowerment is essential to achieving gender equality. If women are properly educated and get paid jobs rather than doing unpaid labor, this will gradually bridge the gap between men and women economically.
Social and Cultural Barriers
Cultural norms and traditions also deepen women's poverty. Early marriages, widow inheritance, and gender-based violence are some of the harmful stereotypes that keep women locked out of leadership and decision-making spaces where change can be made, thus reinforcing this inequality. In many African and Asian countries, widows are forced out of their homes, stripping them and their children of resources and security. In places where patriarchal systems dominate, women are seen as dependents who must rely on men for survival. These social barriers do not just perpetuate poverty; they normalize it.
Early marriages, widow inheritance, and gender-based violence are some of the harmful stereotypes that keep women locked out of leadership and decision-making spaces where change can be made, thus reinforcing this inequality.
READ ALSO: Her Dream Initiative: How Heritage Sanmi-Lawal is Creating a Reality Where All Women Can Dream
Conflict, Poverty, and Gender
Conflict intensifies the struggles women face. In war-torn regions, men are often killed or recruited to fight, and in turn women and children also suffer brutal consequences. They are displaced from their homes, turned into refugees, denied education, raped, enslaved, or even killed. Conflict destroys infrastructure, healthcare systems, and schools, which already disadvantages women more than men. In Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war, leaving women traumatized and excluded from rebuilding processes. Conflict multiplies the struggles women face under poverty and ensures that their voices are further silenced in rebuilding processes.
Policy Recommendations and Solutions
To truly address the sexist nature of poverty, governments and international organizations must intentionally target women in their poverty reduction strategies. Solutions must be practical, specific, and long-term.
Equal Access to Education: Education for all should be made compulsory and free. Laws against early marriage which cuts short the future of girls should be enforced.
Economic Empowerment: Women should have equal pay, equal job opportunities, and access to credit and land ownership. Microfinance can help women in rural areas start small businesses and become financially independent.
Healthcare Access: Free and affordable maternal and reproductive healthcare should be expanded, especially to those in poor and marginalized communities. This can reduce maternal mortality, save lives, and improve family well-being.
Legal Reforms: Discriminatory laws on property, inheritance, and leadership should be repealed. Women should be recognized as equal citizens with full rights.
Cultural Shifts and Changes: Harmful practices like early marriage, domestic violence, and harmful widowhood practices should be dismantled. Cultural norms should be shifted so women are seen as equal partners in households and communities.
Poverty is not gender-neutral; it is deeply sexist. While men and women both face its challenges, women face heavier burdens because of discriminatory structures, cultural norms, and systemic barriers. In conflicts, in the economy, and in the home, women are disproportionately disadvantaged, and this keeps entire societies from moving forward.
To truly address the sexist nature of poverty, governments and international organizations must intentionally target women in their poverty reduction strategies.
If the world truly desires to end poverty by 2030, the fight for gender equality must be at the center of every strategy. Education, economic empowerment, healthcare, and equal rights for women are not optional, they are essential.
Poverty is sexist, and until women everywhere are free from its chains, the world itself cannot be free.
READ MORE
Check out 25 Facts That Show Why Poverty is Sexist
Read about Pakistan: Girls Out of School
Read about Global Financial Inclusion and Women's Access to Credit
Check out this FAO Report: Women in Agri-food Systems
DO MORE
Educate Girls: Advocate for free, compulsory education for every girl. Speak out against early marriage.
Support Women's Work: Push for equal pay and challenge the normalization of unpaid labor.
Fund Women's Futures: Support microfinance initiatives that give women access to credit, loans, and property rights.
Promote Health Access: Campaign for affordable maternal and reproductive healthcare in your community.
Change Cultural Norms: Start conversations in your community to dismantle harmful traditions and practices
Hold Leaders Accountable: Demand that governments honor commitments like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and prioritize women in poverty reduction.
WRITTEN BY Sharon Eseoghene Ogbuehi.
Sharon Eseoghene Ogbuehi is a law undergraduate at the University of Benin City, Nigeria. She is a writer, a lover of literature, a baker, and a cook. She is interested in humanitarianism, politics, human rights, the rights of women and children, etc.
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EDITED BY Chizulu Uwolloh.
'Zulu is a writer, self-proclaimed, bibliophile, and lawyer passionate about social impact and showing people how they can create change in their communities.
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