More women than men live in poverty, due to a variety of reasons beyond women's control.
Some of the facts are:
- Overall, one in every five women is poor.
- For women on their own, the poverty rates are higher. More than half of single mothers, and half of women older than 65 who live alone, are poor.
- One in ten married couples is poor.
- If women in those couples dropped out of the workforce, and only one partner earned an income, the number of poor would rise to one couple in four.
Some groups of women are especially vulnerable to poverty. More than a quarter (27 percent) of women with disabilities was poor.
- Nearly 43 percent of Aboriginal women living off reserve were poor, compared to 35 percent of Aboriginal men or 20.3 percent of non-Aboriginal women and 16.4 percent of non-Aboriginal men.
- Three in ten (32 percent) visible minority women were poor, although they were more likely than other women to be employed full time.
There has been little research on lesbians and poverty, although one Winnipeg study found that 14 percent of gay men over 65 reported incomes below the poverty line, compared with 42 percent of lesbian seniors.