Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T07:00:24.372Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The “Graying” of Mexico and its Impact on Female-Headed Households: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Ashley P. Finley
Ashley P. Finley*
Affiliation:
Dickinson College
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Though much scholarly attention has been paid to the emergence of female-headed households in Latin America, there is debate over where to place these households within discussions of poverty and resource deprivation. Two issues complicate this debate: first, the lack of multi-resource models in quantitative analyses to fully assess types of resource accumulation, and second, the broad failure for analyses of female-headed households to differentiate between different kinds of female-heads of household.

Resumen

Resumen

A pesar de que se ha prestado mucha atención académica al surgimiento de familias encabezadas por mujeres en América Latina, aún se debate en donde ubicarlas dentro de las discusiones sobre pobreza y privación de recursos. Dos factores complican este debate: primero, la falta de modelos de múltiples recursos en los análisis cuantitativos para evaluar los tipos de acumulación de recursos, y segundo, el error de los análisis de familias encabezadas por mujeres de no hacer distinciones entre las mujeres cabezas de familia. Esta nota de investigación emplea la operación y regresión de cuatro tipos de recursos de capital para evaluar los niveles relativos de familias encabezadas por mujeres diferenciadas por edad. Específicamente, los recursos de familias encabezadas por mujeres de 18 a 44, 45 a 49, y 60 o más años, se comparan con cinco medidas de capital monetario, físico, social y humano. Los resultados indican áreas de privación, pero no una consistente falta de recursos en ninguno de los grupos etarios. Utilizando fundamentos teóricos y metodológicos derivados de González de la Rocha, Moser, y Rakodi, el análisis y los resultados de recursos de capital en este estudio son discutidos desde la perspectiva de vulnerabilidad equivalente, en vez de la perspectiva de estrategias efectivas de sobrevivencia.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , October 2007 , pp. 183 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press

References

Bianchi, Susan 1999 “Feminization and Juvenilization of Poverty: Trends, Relative Risks, Causes and Consequences.” Annual Review of Sociology 25:307–333.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, Sarah 1995 “Female-Headed Households in Honduras: Perspectives on Rural-Urban Differences.” Third World Planning Review 17(2): 117–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buvinic, Mayra 1997 “Women in Poverty: A New Global Underclass.” Foreign Policy 108:38–54.Google Scholar
Buvinic, Mayra, and Gupta, Geeta Rao 1997 “Female-Headed Households and Female-Maintained Families: Are They Worth Targeting to Reduce Poverty in Development Countries?” Economic Development and Cultural Change 42 (2): 259–280.Google Scholar
Chant, Sylvia 1997 “Women-Headed Households: Poorest of the Poor?: Perspectives from Mexico, Costa Rica and the Philippines.” IDS Bulletin 28 (3): 26–48.Google Scholar
Chant, Sylvia 1999 “Women-headed Households: Global Orthodoxies and Grassroots Realities.” In Women, Globalization, and Fragmentation in the Developing World, edited by Afshar, Haleh and Barrientos, Stephanie. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Chant, Sylvia 1985 “Single-Parent Families: Choice or Constraint? The Formation of Female-Headed Households in Mexican Shanty-Towns.” Development and Change 16:635–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chant, Sylvia 2003 “Female Household Headship and the Feminisation of Poverty: Facts, Fictions and Forward Strategies.” Working Paper Series No. 1470–8515. London: London School of Economics Gender Institute.Google Scholar
Chant, Sylvia 2004 “Dangerous Equations? How Female-Headed Households Became the Poorest of the Poor: Causes, Consequences and Cautions.” IDS Bulletin 35 (4): 19–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, David, Knaul, Felicia, Lozano, Rafael, Mendez, Oscar, and Zurita, Beatriz 2002 “Financial Crisis, Health Outcomes and Aging: Mexico 1980–1990s.” Journal of Public Economics 84 (2): 279–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vos, Susan 2000 “Kinship Ties and Solitary Living Among Unmarried Elderly Women in Chile and Mexico.” Research On Aging 22 (3): 262–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Vos, Susan, Solís, Patricio, and Oca, Verónica Montes de 2001 “Receipt of Instrumental Assistance and Extended Family Residence Among Elders in Mexico.” CDE Working Paper No. 2001–18. Center for Demography and Ecology. University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Folbre, Nancy 1991 “Women On Their Own: Global Patterns of Female-headship.” Washington DC: International Centre for Research on Women.Google Scholar
Fuwa, Nobuhiko 2000 “The Poverty and Heterogeneity among Female-Headed Households Revisited: The Case of Panama.” World Development 28 (8): 1515–1542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García, Brígida, and Rojas, Olga 2001 “Recent Transformations in Latin American Families: A Socio-Demographic Perspective.” XXIV General Conference of IUSSP. Salvador, Brazil.Google Scholar
Gomes da Conceição, Maria Cristina 2003 “Households and Income: Aging and Gender Inequalities in Brazil and Columbia.” In Through the Eyes of Women: Gender, Social Networks, Family, and Structural Change in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Menjívar, Cecilia. Ontario, Canada: De Sitter Publications.Google Scholar
Gonzalez de la Rocha, Mercedes 1998 “The Erosion of a Survival Model: Urban Household Responses to Persistent Poverty.” Papers on Latin America Series #47. Columbia University: Institute of Latin American and Iberian Studies.Google Scholar
Gonzalez de la Rocha, Mercedes 2001a “From the Resources of Poverty to the Poverty of Resources? The Erosion of a Survival Model.” Latin American Perspectives 28 (4): 72–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonzalez de la Rocha, Mercedes 2001b “Are Poor Households Coping? Assets, Vulnerability, and Decreasing Opportunities.” Development and Society 30 (2): 1–40.Google Scholar
Gonzalez de la Rocha, Mercedes 2003 “Construction of the Myth of Survival.” Paper prepared for the International Workshop “Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: Repositioning Gender in Development Policy and Practice.” Institute of Development Studies. University of Sussex, England.Google Scholar
González de la Rocha, Mercedes, and Gantt, Barbara B. 1995 “The Urban Family and Poverty in Latin America.” Latin American Perspectives 22 (2): 12–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática). 2000 www.inegi.gob.mx/Google Scholar
Jackson, Cecile 1996 “Rescuing Gender from the Poverty Trap.” World Development 24 (3): 489–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, Cynthia 1998 “Household Structure and Poverty: What are the Connections?” in Population and Poverty in the Developing World, edited by Livi-Bacci, M. and Santis, G. De, 84–102. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Marcoux, Alain 1998 “The Feminization of Poverty: Claims, Facts, and Data Needs.” Population and Development Review 24 (1): 131–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLanahan, Sara, Sorenson, Annemette, and Watson, Dorothy 1989 “Sex Differences in Poverty, 1950–1980.” Signs 15 (1): 102–122.Google Scholar
Moore, Henrietta L. 1996 “Mothering and Social Responsibilities in a Cross-Cultural Perspective.” In Good Enough Mothering: Feminist Perspectives on Lone Motherhood, edited by Silva, Elizabeth Bortolaia. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moser, Caroline 1998 “The Asset-Vulnerability Framework: Reassessing Urban Poverty Reduction Strategies.” World Development 26 (1): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parrado, Emilio A., and Zenteno, Rene M. 2002 “Gender Differences in Union Formation in Mexico: Evidence From Marital Search Models.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 64 (3): 756–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Psacharopoulos, George, and Winter, Carolyn 1992 “Women's Employment and Pay in Latin America.” Finance and Development 29 (4): 14–15.Google Scholar
Rakodi, Carole 1995 “Poverty Lines or Household Strategies?” Habitat International 19 (4): 407–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rakodi, Carole 2001 “Urban Governance and Poverty—Addressing Needs, Asserting Claims: An Editorial Introduction.” International Planning Series 6 (4): 343–356.Google Scholar
Rakodi, Carole 2002 “A Livelihood Approach-Conceptual Issues and Definition” in Urban Livelihoods: A People Centered Approach to Reducing Poverty by Carole Rakodi and Tony Lloyd-Jones. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Razavi, Shahra 1999 “Seeing Poverty Through a Gender Lens.” International Social Science Journal 51 (4): 473–482.Google Scholar
Rosenhouse, Sandra 1989 “Identifying the ‘Poor’: Is Headship a Useful Concept.” Living Standards Measurement Study. Working Paper No. 58. World Bank, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Varley, Ann 2003 “Women Heading Households: Some More Equal than Others.” World Development 24 (3): 505–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varley, Ann, and Blasco, Maribel 2003 “Older Women's Living Arrangements and Family Relationships in Urban Mexico.” Women's Studies International Forum 26 (6).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vartanian, Thomas P., and McNamara, Justine M. 2002 “Older Women in Poverty: The Impact of Midlife Factors.” Journal of Marriage and Family 64 (2): 532–548.Google Scholar