Women lose more life-years to poverty than men. Poverty is insidious disease of human soul

[ArranUpsideDown]

Richard Horton - Global health’s indifference to poverty must end:

Poverty is not only a curse for the poorest nations in the world. There is endemic poverty in supposedly rich countries too. Persistent poverty affects one in five children up to age 14 years in the UK, poverty that is linked to worse physical and mental health. And one must not forget that poverty in rich and poor nations alike is gendered. Women lose more life-years to poverty than men. Ending poverty must return as a political objective for global health. Health professionals are uniquely placed to draw attention to the acute personal consequences of poverty. We can be powerful advocates for action. Poverty is not an economic state. It is an insidious disease of the human soul.

www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(19)31710-6.pdf

*Ending poverty must return as a political objective for global health.

^ couldn’t agree more

Thanks for sharing

yes. thank you.

The corrosive impact of this perpetuates the "insidious disease of the human soul".

More than 4 million people in the UK are trapped in deep poverty, meaning their income is at least 50% below the official breadline, locking them into a weekly struggle to afford the most basic living essentials, an independent study has shown.

The Social Metrics Commission also said 7 million people, including 2.3 million children, were affected by what it termed persistent poverty, meaning that they were not only in poverty but had been for at least two of the previous three years.
...
It also confirms that work is no longer a guarantee of protection against poverty. At the millennium 54% of children in poverty lived in a family where an adult worked. That rose to 73% in 2o17-18. Even in families where all adults work full time, one in six children are in poverty.

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/29/uk-deep-poverty-study-austerity?CMP=share_btn_tw

Thanks for posting. There’s a saying isn’t there that if hard work were a way out of poverty, all the women in the global south would be millionaires.

Women and poverty is something that isn’t addressed properly outside feminism. Groups of women help themselves and each other all over the world but it seems sometimes that governments won’t give them a hand up.

Speaking personally, when my eldest was small I had just left his violent father and was a single parent on benefits. I’d almost had my house repossessed. It was really stressful. I knew I had to get out of poverty somehow but I found the only help I could get that didn’t cost money was the kind of training that would lead to a low paid job, usually in some kind of care work or hospitality. I wanted security especially after the horror of dealing with the house repossession. (I did manage to sell it in the end but didn’t have any equity to move forward) I had access to some free nursery time so I started a part time degree. I was lucky to apply for and get a few waiver for the first year. Then I took a really good job no one else wanted because it was only 8 hours a week. In my second year at uni I got a student loan that I’m still paying off but long story short I now have a 1st class degree, MA, PhD and I’ve had several relatively well paid jobs. However, I got no support from the employment services to get started on this journey. Women with small children should be encouraged to aim higher, to be truly independent from men, from the state, to achieve their full potential, whatever that might be, because this is what’s best for the world.

I think Dworkin said that poverty is women's punishment for living too long and especially outliving their "useful" reproductive years. It's the nursing homes waiting for us. I've been in one, they are hell on earth

And let's not forget, poverty is deliberately created. The last ten years of austerity were a political decision, not an economic one.

Women and poverty is something that isn’t addressed properly outside feminism

You're spot on. Poverty is not addressed properly even by organisations that claim to centre women (and children).

It's an ongoing irritation that even the Women's Budget Group has the tagline: FOR A GENDER EQUAL FUTURE and many of their reports have 'gender' rather than 'women' in the title.

wbg.org.uk

Letter to The Times on the impact of the 2 child limit (mostly on single mothers and their children):

The two-child limit means unprecedented cuts to the living standards of the poorest children in Britain...It is quite simply one of the most damaging changes to the social security system ever.

twitter.com/CPAGUK/status/1156478091943907328

Thank you Arran. It's a sobering thread.

It is quite simply one of the most damaging changes to the social security system ever.

That is very damning. I’m not on social media, is it getting much attention generally?

That is very damning. I’m not on social media, is it getting much attention generally?

The 2 child limit flares up and down but I can only hope that it gains more traction.

There are so many out of control current issues that it's hard to tell what is being appropriately addressed. I'm not seeing the response that it merits and have to wonder just how many people understand how imminent it is and the full horror of what it brings with it.

Its very scary times we are living in.