Briefly describe the characteristics of the poor in the United States, in terms of age, gender, and race/ethnicity

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Poverty in the United States is highly concentrated according to age, gender, and

race/ethnicity. Today, children are at a much greater risk of living in poverty than are

older persons. The age category most vulnerable to poverty today is the very young.

One out of every three persons below the poverty line is under 18 years of age. The

precarious position of African American and Latino/a children is even more striking.

Children as a group are poorer now than they were at the beginning of the 1980s,

whether they live in one- or two-parent families. The majority of these children live in

two-parent families in which one or both parents are employed. However, children in

single-parent households headed by women have a much greater likelihood of living in

poverty. About two-thirds of all adults living in poverty are women. The feminization of

poverty refers to the trend in which women are disproportionately represented among

individuals living in poverty. Women have a higher risk of being poor because they bear

the major economic and emotional burdens of raising children when they are single

heads of households but typically earn less than men. People of color are

disproportionately represented among the poor.