Blog #8: Working Poor: Women's Paid Labor

There are several important characteristics to urban poverty: limited access to employment opportunities and income, inadequate and insecure housing and services, violent and unhealthy environments, little or no social protection mechanisms, and limited access to adequate health and education opportunities. These can effect poor working mothers and their children in a variety of different ways, and are currently making life even more difficult for these mothers than ever before.

Limited access to employment and income will create a large group of these poor working mothers to work low end jobs at minimum wage. These jobs do not provide substantial income for these families, require long and inconvenient hours, and leave no room for advancement or improvement within their field. This can create a vicious cycle that doesn't allow these working mothers to do better for themselves and their families, forcing them to move into neighborhoods suffering from urban poverty. Inadequate housing and services makes these families always on the move. Children need routine, and it's very difficult to ask a child to adjust to new living situations several times a year. This can be completely detrimental to a child's normal development. Living in a violent environment would also be a reason to try and get out of these types of neighborhoods, but sometimes the income is not great enough to allow for such a move putting children and their mothers in dangerous situations, even while at home. There is very limited access to education and health opportunities, creating both a problem for working mothers and children. Education is what is needed in present day to advance and get hired into specific jobs with higher pay. Without this education, women are stuck in low income jobs at minimum wage. However, without the access to education, it's impossible for someone to become educated. No access to health facilities will create sickness within the family, and also rack up medical bills that will not be covered because of the lack of health insurance. This is a vicious cycle that many of these mother's are not able to get out of. This type of life style is passed on to their children and they will often live the same life as their mother's did.