Poverty Among Women

For centuries, gender, race, ethnicity, and age, have contributed to the social stratification of persons in society, and more specifically, for the means of this essay, women in society. In the United States for example, gender and age greatly contribute to whether or not one will be subject to a life of poverty. In Cultural Anthropology: A Problem Based Approach, Robbins discusses the book Women and Children Last by Ruth Sidel in which Sidel draws a comparison between the Titanic and American society in the 1980's. "Both were gleaming symbols of wealth that placed women and children at a disadvantage" (Robbins, 239). When the Titanic went down that night, the women and children traveling first and second-class were the first to be saved, but the women and children in third-class and steerage were either the last ones to be saved or rather not saved at all, so much so that 45 percent of the women and 70 percent of the children in steerage died. Sidel claims that the same way certain women and children on board the Titanic were the last to be saved, in the United States as well, certain women and children are not the first to be saved, but rather the first ones to fall into poverty.

Race and ethnicity as well have contributed to the social stratification of different groups in society. For a long time, to be part of a certain racial or ethnic group essentially decided ones place in the social hierarchy. Most people had little trouble convincing themselves that race and ethnicity play a key factor in the justification of racial stratification, especially when the state and religious authorities reinforced this idea. To additionally reinforce racial superiority, scientist Samuel George Morton conducted an experiment in which he fa...

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... many possible factors that contribute to the condition of homeless women. Whether it is sexism, the idea that men are superior to women, or racism that contributes to their condition as homeless women doesn't really matter. The important thing to note is that gender has always played a large part in social stratification, and women, especially those of a minority race or ethnicity, seem to be at the bottom of this social hierarchy.

Works Cited

Friedl, Ernestine. "Society and Sex Roles". 1978.

Mitter, Sara S. "The Shadow Economy: Cleaners in Bombay". 1991.

Robbins, Richard H. Cultural Anthropology: A Problem Based Approach. U.S.: Thomson

Wadsworth, 2006.

Sidel, Ruth. Women and Children Last. New York: Viking Press, 1986.

Waterston, Alisse. Love, Sorrow, and Rage: Destitute Women in a Manhattan Residence.

Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press: 1999.