Although gender inequality has shown much change throughout the previous decades, women continue to face marginalization in the workplace and the economy, which is why they are more often to be found living in poverty than men. Women are in the lowest-paid work everywhere across the globe. Globally, they earn 24% less than men and at the current rate of progress, it will take 170 years to close the gap. 700 million fewer women than men are in paid work. Furthermore, 75% of women in developing regions are less likely to have employment contracts, legal rights or social protection, and are often not paid enough to escape poverty. 600 million women are in the most insecure and precarious forms of work. Women also work longer days than men when paid and unpaid work is counted together. That means globally, a young woman today will work on average the equivalent of four years more than a man over her lifetime.
Poverty disproportionately affects marginalized communities
In Canada, the national rate of poverty amongst Indigenous people is 25.3 percent, which is 1 of four people. Four out of every five reserves have incomes that fall below the poverty line. This is further exacerbated for people living in remote regions, such as Canada’s northern territories, where people are paying double for the same amount of food. In Nunavut, for example, residents spend $14,800 per year just on groceries, compared to the $7,300 the rest of Canada pays. Additionally, these northern territories often have only one local grocery store.
This figure shows the ratio of people in poverty by race or Hispanic origin group to each group’s share of the total population presented by the Current Population Survey.
How poverty and gender inequality affects the overall economy
Gender inequality and poverty costs the economy an estimated $9 trillion each year. Imagine what could be done with that money. Countries with higher levels of gender equality tend to have higher income levels, and it has been shown that closing the gap leads to a reduction in poverty. In Latin America, an increase in the number of women in paid work between 2000 and 2010 accounted for around 30 percent of the overall reduction in poverty and income inequality. We need a human economy that works for women and men, and for everyone, not just a fortunate few.
A note on discrimination and poverty against men
We cannot look at gender gaps in isolation from inequalities by race and class. Being raised in families on different standings of the income ladder influences the outcomes of girls and boys. A study found that boys raised in low-income families do worse, in terms of adult outcomes than girls raised in low-income families. Only 14% of boys from low-income families will get a college degree. The study further showed that men living in poverty are less likely to get out of poverty than women. While women have faced centuries of extensive inequality, it is often a mistake to look at one kind of inequality in isolation from another.