Study finds Dallas-Fort Worth women suffer disproportionately from poverty

Pavel Lishin, says:

What's the definition of poverty line again?

Erin Rice, says:

Pavel, also known as the poverty threshold, the poverty line is, "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_line">the minimum level</a> of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country."

In order to define what the poverty line for a given country is, a number of factors are measured determining how much money it costs for a citizen to live a "tolerable" life. Things like cost of food, clothing, shelter, transportation, health care, insurance, etc. can be included. Different countries may measure a different set of factors, but those are the basics.

Scott Doyle, says:

was compiled by the foundation from publicly available data to present an objective portrait of how women are faring in the Dallas-Fort Worth community.

While there's no doubt in my mind that the Dallas Women's Foundation approached this objectively, how exactly do they determine a household to be female-headed?

Erin Rice, says:

Census reports obtain that information, not to mention your tax form asks if you are filing as a head of household or not.

Pavel Lishin, says:

I know what <b>a</b> poverty threshold is; I was curious what it was for Dallas.

And I'm obviously too lazy to research.

Scott Doyle, says:

Erin, that's fantastic - I'm wondering how they specifically determined "female-headed household" for this study. Simply says they pulled public info...that leaves things pretty wide open, imo.

Erin Rice, says:

That's definitely not how your question was phrased, but to answer the implied question: the U.S. government defined the poverty threshold for 2007-08 as an income of $10,400 for a one-person household (higher for Alaska and Hawaii). For each additional person add $3,600.

In Dallas*, "14.9% of families and 17.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.1% of those under age 18 and 13.1% of those aged 65 or over."

In Fort Worth*, "12.7% of families and 15.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.4% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over."

*Obtained from Wikipedia, who obtained from the 2000 U.S. Census.

Erin Rice, says:

And, Scott, what I'm saying is it's highly likely that's where they pulled said information for this study. Of course, I can't say that with absolute, 100% certainty. I do know that "female-headed household" is a pretty standard term and the use of it in studies often falls along the same lines as those defined in the census reports and for tax purposes. But, perhaps it was just a little publicly obtained voodoo and witchcraft.

You guys asked questions, I'm just trying to help out. I don't have an agenda here.

Scott Doyle, says:

Stop brow-beating us with your man hate, Erin!

Tracy Yost, says:

This study would be more meaningful if it were comparative, either to some other tx region, or other US cities..... Something a little more global, the US ranks 12th in the world (out of 177) on the United Nations gender equity development index (measures gender equality wrt life expectancy, education and earned income). Who's doing better ?
1 Iceland
2 Norway
3 Australia
4 Canada
5 Ireland
6 Sweden
7 Switzerland
8 Japan
9 Netherlands
10 France
11 Finland

Pavel Lishin, says:

Erin, although it's easy (and usually correct) to assume that I'm retarded, I actually did know what a poverty line was. Thanks for finding the actual data, though. $10,000 a year seems so frighteningly low.