Combating Poverty

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For some poverty is a way of life the day to day struggle of keeping food on the table and clothes on their back. For others it is something that is seen only on television, and even then it is not so easy to comprehend. This is usually the case with families who are well to do and money is not an issue. They may describe the characteristics of poverty as to not have certain materialistic items such as clothes, cars, accessories etc. However to someone living in those circumstances it may mean not having the basic necessities of life. What causes this to happen in society? How do people and families reach such a state of desperation? Well there are many reasons as to why this happens; poverty can be attributed to a changing society whereby the cost of living increases and the wages stay the same. It seems logical, if the income per household is lower than the standard of living it then places a family in a position of challenge to meet the needs of everyday life. Poverty is a very broad topic which can and will be broken down for the purpose of this paper. Again it is asked, what causes people be introduced to an impoverished life? Well there are many variables that can be equated into the problem but for the function of this essay the focus will be gender, poverty and paid work. There are factors that make each of these variables unique from one another however, I will attempt to show that they do collectively work together and is the foundation from which poverty stems. Historically looking back, at the construct of society, which has always been patriarchal there has been a continuous gender separation between men and women. Men were seen as the sole breadwinners for a family while the women were seen as homemakers wh... ... middle of paper ... ...women 56% of single parent families are headed by women. Knowing this information in conjunction with the fact that women are paid lower wages than that of men it would be likely that women are dependant on services such as the food bank. Statistics Canada conducted a study which found that the primary factor in the wage gap is the presence of children as opposed to age, marriage, or education (CRIAW 2). The food bank has given much appreciation to schools in their conscious effort to have drives in schools and recently congratulated Rick Hanson Secondary school of Mississauga for their generous donation of 3,420 Kilograms of food. The director of the food bank has shed light on why there may have been such a large deficit for the bank, the brown bags which used to be given in the newspaper had been cancelled after some individuals claim they had no impact on people.

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