The propose of this study is to understand how Feminization of Poverty, proportion of the increasing number of women in the lower class is expanded on in Korea. As the number of female-headed families and female senior citizens increases, the study fi...
The propose of this study is to understand how Feminization of Poverty, proportion of the increasing number of women in the lower class is expanded on in Korea. As the number of female-headed families and female senior citizens increases, the study finds out determining factors of feminine poverty. It verified the characteristics of poverty in female-headed families, how different they are from male-headed ones, and what has caused the difference between male and female-headed families, which helps define feminine poverty. The study examined Feminization of Poverty in Korea
The overall characteristics of poverty existing in female-headed families are analyzed with the data of KLIPS(2002) and KOSIS(1991-2002). Next, the study mainly focused on discussing factors of Feminization of Poverty by observing the range of poverty. It then compares and analyzes the poverty rate of female-headed families by year to the poverty rate of male-headed families. The detailed results are as follows.
First, the difference between the poverty rate of female-headed families and that of male-headed families is growing. The poverty rate of female-headed families increased rapidly compared to that of male-headed families during the economic crisis in Korea. While male-headed families have shown a lowered poverty rate, most female-headed families have not overcome poverty and still show a high rate of poverty. This implies the difference between men and women in overcoming economic difficulties; females have generally more difficulties than males in emerging from poverty.
Second, determining factors of poverty are different between female and male-headed families. The result has shown that human capital such as age and educational background, which greatly affect the poverty of male-headed families, have insignificant influence on the poverty of female-headed families. Marriage, on the other hand, has shown to be an important factor to both female and male-headed families. However, it also affects males and females differently; males who are married and have spouses tend to have the lowest possibility of being in poverty whereas married women have a high chance of being poor.
In terms of family characteristics, the study found out that the poverty of female-headed families is not much affected by the number of works and children under 20, which is different from the results of previous researches that poverty increases in proportion to the number of family members. This may reflect the society where has many older ages that mostly consist of old people who live alone. On the other hand, poverty in male-headed families has shown to be greatly influenced by the number of family members, children under 20, and those who are employed, which implies that personal environment has a more significant influence on the poverty of female-headed families than that of male-headed families.
Third, female-headed families do not get benefits from Social Security Transfers
Determining factors in the poverty of male-headed families include social insurance and social security transfers which do not significantly influence the poverty of female-headed families. Private Transfers are turned out to be the only significant determining factor in the poverty of female-headed families, which may have resulted from the lower rate of female-headed families who carry social insurance and the higher rate of those who have more Private Transfers than male-headed families.