Women in Poverty

This paper is based on a consideration of the resources available to women living in conditions of poverty in Mexico City. In a sample of 50 households 4 separate housing clusters randomly selected from impoverished areas within the metropolitan zone I outline patterns of employment as related to household composition and the domestic economy. Women were commonly found to work outside the home, both in the absence of a resident male in the husband/father role and where the husband/father had no secure employment, making a variety of arrangements for the accommodation of their children. The resultant patterns of domestic organization are presented as an endeavor, primarily on the part of women, to solve the basic and related problems of child care and maintenance. Considering the household from the points of view of common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction, I seek to demonstrate both ambiguity of membership and flexibility of structure. In doing so I illustrate the limited influence of socio-demographic factors in determining the probability of female participation in economic activity

Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Political science · Poverty · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

• Women, development, and anthropology

  Barbara D Miller, Barbara Miller•Reviews in Anthropology•1986

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