National Snapshot: Poverty Among Women & Families, 2011

Census data released in September 2012 show that poverty rates started to stabilize in 2011 after several years of increases, as the economy slowly recovered from the Great Recession that began in late 2007 – but that left poverty among women and children at or near historically high levels.  Poverty rates for all groups of women in 2011 were higher than for their male counterparts.

Though the data present a grim picture, they also show the importance of federal and state programs in alleviating poverty and hardship, even though not all of these programs are counted in the official poverty measure.  Whether policymakers choose to maintain and strengthen programs that bolster the recovery and protect the most vulnerable – or cut those programs while expanding tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations – will play a crucial role in determining whether more women and families are lifted out of, or sink into, poverty in the years to come.

Download the fact sheet below.

Document(s):

National Snapshot: Poverty Among Women & Families, 2011