Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• The Chicago Tribune relates the story of Stacey Wolf, who met math standards needed to pursue a nursing career at community college, a rarity among low-income women.

• In an opinion article published in the Huffington Post, the President of Washington Area Women’s Foundation, Phyllis Caldwell, states that recent Census numbers indicating a rise in poverty failed to communicate that women and girls make up the majority of America’s impoverished.

• The Chicago Tribune reports the findings of a study in which Duke University researchers found that low-income mothers are more likely to abuse their children.

• Despite being sixty-one and homeless, Terri Mace is determined to earn her GED by taking classes in a local shelter, as told in the Des Moines Register.

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to record a commentary for NPR regarding the release of new census data showing that 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty last year.

While the official press release stated that there was no statistical change in the poverty rate for female-headed families, the reality is that 4.2 million such families are impoverished. 

That means that nearly a third of all female-headed households live in poverty—a number that shoots up to 40 percent for black and Hispanic families headed by single mothers.

The statistics are staggering when you consider that:

• A fifth of all girls are poor;
• 13 percent of adult women live in poverty;
• Almost twice as many elderly women as elderly men are impoverished;
• Real earnings for women dropped 2 percent to $35,745, compared with a 1 percent decline for men to $46,367;
• The unemployment rate for female-headed families is 12.2 percent, compared to 7.1 percent for married men; and,
• 43.5 percent of children living in female-headed households are poor, compared to 9.9 percent of children living in married couple households.

Despite what should be jaw-dropping statistics, few in the mainstream media have talked about the female face of poverty today.

There is an untold story not only in the numbers themselves, but also in what’s behind the numbers.

It is the story of the millions of women who face insurmountable odds and yet every day, bit-by-bit, they are working to beat those odds and create a better life for themselves and their children.

They are women like Lee, a single mother who fled domestic violence and entered a shelter program with her 5-year-old son. She secured a job with a local retail store and through the shelter received financial education to develop a budget and begin restoring her credit. She worked to relieve medical debt totaling $2,211.  As a result of free tax preparation services, she received a $3,640 refund that was used to further pay down debt and deposit more than $2,000 in her savings account. She is now taking placement tests toward pursuing a degree in emergency medical services.

While Washington Area Women’s Foundation is very proud of the work we’re doing to improve the lives of women like Lee through our Stepping Stones initiative, we know that it’s not enough.

In his final letter to President Obama, the late Senator Edward Kennedy referred to health care reform as “above all a moral issue.”

I would argue that reducing poverty among women and their children is also a moral issue and that everyone needs to be part of the solution.

What will you do?

Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat is The Women’s Foundation’s Vice President of Programs.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.”  It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit www.TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• The Times-Picayune features an article about how the young people in the Little Zion Baptist Church service group volunteer in women’s shelters and help to organize poor neighborhoods in New Orleans.

• The Chicago Tribune reported that the St. Paul Diaper Bank Partnership will soon be distributing diapers to low-income single mothers and families in McHenry County.

• In the wake of the President’s healthcare speech last week, the issue of the public option funding abortions, especially for low-income and uninsured women, seems to have been resolved, according to the New York Times.

• Homeless women moved out of a Salvation Army emergency winter shelter to provide room for the men who occupy it during the colder months, as told by the Charlotte Observer.

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

•  The New York Times profiles nine-year old Charity Crowell, one of more than one million students whose family is homeless as a result of eviction and foreclosure.

•  The Times-Picayune reports that Mark and Brenda Gebhardt are opening up the Danielle Inn, a home for unwed, expectant mothers. The Gebhardts hope to provide help and education for homeless pregnant women, especially those who are in desperate situations.

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution highlights the accomplishments of Zicuria Ussery, a low-income student who has started her own smoothie business and was selected as a finalist in the 2009 OppenheimerFunds/National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.

•  Planned Parenthood of Indiana announced that it will close a clinic in Indianapolis along with four others due to loss of funding, as reported in the Indianapolis Star.

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• Alice Smith, 80, is a low-income retiree unable to pay off massive credit card debt. The Washington Post reports that older Americans, like Ms. Smith, are among the most vulnerable age groups in this recession, since they are unable to pay off large debt loads with fixed incomes and dwindling retirement savings.
• In her memoir, Not All Black Girls Know How to Eat, Stephanie Covington Armstrong reveals that eating disorders – traditionally thought to afflict only wealthy white communities – are rampant in poor black communities as well, according to the Boston Globe.
• The Lexington Herald Leader covers the uplifting story of how Jessica Caldwell won a college scholarship. Born into poverty and abandoned by her alcoholic mother, Ms. Caldwell never thought she would be able to attend college.
• In an interview with the New York Times, Mary Gibson Holley, a 74-year-old black retiree living in Alabama, feels apprehensive about community leaders’ plans to fill the local landfill with coal ash from Tennessee.

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.