Eight Things in the Poverty Report That’ll Make Women Mad

By Shobhana Chandra  

America’s poverty rate fell in 2013 for the first time in this economic recovery. For women, though, it was hard to find much to cheer about.
1. Gender inequality is a grim reality in the world’s largest economy. For starters, median earnings adjusted for inflation -- see chart -- came in at $50,033 for men last year compared with $39,157 for women. Alas, the gap is alive, and still significant.
2. As for the female-to-male earnings ratio, you have to really squint -- see chart -- to see an uptick last year. Women earned 78 cents for
every dollar that a man made, after 77 cents in 2012. A penny hardly counts as a meaningful improvement.
3. By most measures, women are more likely to be impoverished than men. That’s whether you’re looking at this decade -- see chart -- or the last one, or even the one before that.
4. Needless to say, impoverished women far outnumber their male counterparts -- see chart. The gap between the genders has also widened: Last year, there were 5.1 million more women in poverty than men. Back in 2003, that difference was at 4.3 million.
5. More men are still snagging the good jobs -- see chart - - i.e. full-time, year-round work.
6. Women were also worse off than men last year -- see chart -- when comparing the poverty rate for working-age Americans.
7. For grandma, the inequality was even starker -- see chart. The poverty rate for women 65 and older stood well above the rate for senior men last year.
8. Among all impoverished seniors, two out of three were women last year-- see chart -- and their share also grew from 2012.
As if these statistics aren’t depressing enough, there’s more about the gender-gap story in the income and poverty figures the Census Bureau released on Sept. 16. It’s high time women in America heard happier news.