Women and Poverty, Carol Hollenshead, Director

In Ann Arbor as across the country, we've been seeing news stories related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita since Labor Day weekend.  Commentators and newscasters alike have noted that these stories have shown the nation images of Americans living in poverty and have illuminated issues of poverty.  In the aftermath of these hurricanes, a new spotlight has shone on poverty in the U.S.

For those of us at CEW, our dismay at seeing these terrible images is coupled with a reminder of one of the fundamental needs for women in America today – the need for education.  While only 4.3% of the population holding a four year degree or higher is below the poverty line, the numbers rise dramatically for those with only a high school diploma (12%) and reach 21% for those without a high school degree.1  Clearly, economic and social stratification translates into educational levels, as David Brooks describes in a September 25, 2005 editorial in the New York Times.   Students in the poorest quartile of the population have less than a 10% likelihood of completing a college degree, while those in the top quartile economically have a 75% chance.

Women comprise 56% of Americans over 18 who live in poverty.   Yet, women's earnings and income increase dramatically when they have college degrees.  Completing a four-year college degree “sharply reduces women's chances of being poor, from 16.7 percent to 1.6 percent.” Higher education is even more vital for women because in order to reach the income levels of men with high school diplomas, women need post-secondary education.  Men with a high school degree in 2001 earned more than $34,000, while women who had an associates degree earned just over $32,000.

According to UM's National Center on Poverty, “Poverty rates are highest for families headed by single women, particularly if they are black or Hispanic. In 2004, 28.4 percent of households headed by single women were poor, while 13.5 percent of households headed by single men and 5.5 percent of married-couple households lived in poverty.”

The grim photos of women and children in poverty in New Orleans illuminate the need for women, and especially single mothers, to improve their economic prospects through education.  Not only does women's educational attainment result in higher earnings and a reduced probability of living in poverty, recent research points to the intergenerational benefits of higher educational attainment.  “Higher levels of parental education… increase the likelihood that children will be successful in school,” and the educational attainment of parents is reflected in the subsequent educational attainment of their children.

The suffering following the Gulf Coast disasters reminds us that CEW's ongoing work to improve educational access for women can have tangible results.  Improving the lives of individual women and consequently their children's lives happens in many ways at CEW. Working to advance women's educational attainment is one important way we touch the lives of hundreds of women each year.