Women are more likely to live in poverty than men. This is partly due to factors in the labor market such as lower pay and women dominating lower-paid jobs. While the gender pay gap has decreased since the 1970s, women on average still earn less than men. Some explanations for poverty among ethnic minorities focus on family types and education levels, but these have been criticized for being oversimplified and not accounting for the variations between different minority groups. Social and economic exclusion, such as poor housing and lack of job opportunities, have also contributed to higher poverty rates.

1. AS Level
Gender and Poverty (2)

2. Poverty and Gender Inequality
Equal Opportunities Commission (2005)
Women are 14% more likely to live in households
with incomes that are less than 60% of the
national average compared to men.

3. Explanations
1) The Labour Market Factors
A) Lower Pay
Women in full-time work earn about 86% of what
men do.
In the 1970s women earned about 65% of what
mean did. However, because of the equal pay act
and other laws the gap has got smaller because
women's pay has increased.
The fact that women earn less than men could be
explained because women and men may be in a
different labour markets. For example, 2/3 low-paid
jobs (cleaners etc) are female and men dominate
the highest job positions as 85% of chief executives
are male.

4. B) The Dual Labour Market
There are two labour markets: primary and
secondary. Ethnic minorities are in the secondary
market.
Criticisms
 Only describes the labour market position of the
ethnic minorities and doesn’t explain why

5. C) Tend to live in areas high of
unemployment
Criticisms
 Tend to live in London which has jobs. So why
are they unemployed?

6. 2) Education - New Right
Some groups are poorer because they did less well
in school. Eg West Indians.
Criticisms
 Indians do better than whites but still more likely
to be poorer
 Bangladeshis only get slightly lower results than
whites, but still 3 times more likely to live in
poverty than white.

7. 3) Family Types – Functionalists and
New Right
Afro – Carib families tend to live longer and have a
higher percentage of one parent families.
Criticisms
 The New Right explanation is unconvincing
because Indian and Pakistani families are less
likely to be a single parent than white families, but
Pakistanis in particular are more likely to be poor.

8. 4) Social Exclusion
A) Alcock (1993)
Poor housing, health and education add significantly to
the financial insecurity of black people in Britain.
B) Yeadle Et Al (1905)
Looked at small focus groups and found that
Bangladeshi families picked out poor housing and social
exclusion as the main problems (of why they’re living in
poverty) but they wanted to work but couldn’t because
of children.
Criticisms
 This may not be representative of all of the ethnic
minorities so this evidence lacks reliability.

9. C) Rex and Tomlinson (1979) – Weberian
The study of handwork in Manchester and they
concluded that ethnic minorities were an
‘underclass’
Criticisms
 The study is now out-of-date
 Since 1979 the position of the ethnic minorities in
the UK has improved considerably and they’re no
longer an underclass.

10. 5) Product of Capitalism – Castles
and Kosack - Marxists
Racism is deliberately spread by the capitalist class
as they own the media. This is to ‘fragment’ the
working class and ruling class to divide which
prevents a revolution. Eg Christmas is a Christian
celebration.
Criticisms
 This idea seems far-fetched. It is difficult to see
how the bourgeoisie can work together as a clan
to deliberately spread racism to divide and rule to
working class.
 The Marxist view is ideologically biased as they
are always looking to blame capitalism

11. 6) The Benefit System – Oppenheim
and Harter (1996)
 The benefit system works against the ethnic
minorities as it is ‘institutially racist’. Eg there are lots
of forms that have to be filled in for ‘means-tested’
benefits, which works against those against those
who can’t speak English.
 The benefit system is dependent on residence,
therefore new residence will struggle with getting help
from the welfare state so they’re being ‘thrown’ into
poverty.
 Some ethnic minorities may have children abroad but
they won’t get the money as it is going abroad.
Criticisms
 The New Right would regret this as they would say
that the real problem is the over generosity of
benefits.

12. More Evaluation Points:
 Ethnic minorities are not a homogenous group
 The New Right explanation is ideologically biased
as they always seem to blame individuals
 Most of the evidence is ambiguous because it is
not representative or reliable, but it is valid.