Women and Poverty Revisited

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Ten years after its first major report on women and poverty in 1979, the National Council of Welfare published Women and Poverty Revisited. It notes that the intervening decade had been one of significant change for women, including legislative action on women’s equality rights, changes to social programs, and increased labour force participation. Despite these developments, the proportion of women among Canada’s poor had not changed noticeably, and women continued to face a significantly higher risk of poverty. The report provides an overview of women and poverty and examines women’s poverty with respect to change in family situation, paid work, marriage and motherhood, single parenthood, unattached women at different ages, and homeless women. It also devotes a chapter to several groups of women who find themselves “doubly disadvantaged”: Aboriginal women, disabled women, and visible minority and immigrant women.