Women and Poverty: “An Ounce of Flesh Taken From My Heart”

ATD prepared remarks for the Geneva NGO Forum for the Beijing+20 UN ECE Regional Review which took place on 3-5 November 2014.

Held in 1995, the Beijing conference was the most ambitious international conference on gender equality ever held, and the Beijing+20 process is an important part of continuing its work into the future.

ATD remarks focus on four areas that should be addressed:

1. Greater attention needs to be given to the multidimensionality of poverty in order to develop more effective anti-poverty strategies.

2. Poverty needs to be recognized not only as a consequence of gender discrimination, but also as a cause of double discrimination for low-income women.

3. Social services need to be reformed to be more supportive of women in poverty.

4. Child welfare policies should support women in their care-giving roles, rather than separating families

ATD’s comments prepared by Diana Selton, Deputy Director General of ATD Fourth World, are rooted in work with women living in extreme poverty in 15 of the ECE countries, and more specifically in the UK, France, Poland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the US. In comparing the national reports submitted by those countries with the experiences of the women we know there.

Read ATD’s full contribution