How Emotional, Economic and Material Dependency May Produce Poverty for Women

Abstract

Dependencies, mainly for women, represent a factor that studies from ‘70s on have detected as originating a greater risk of social exclusion and vulnerability and, ultimately, of poverty. Main dimensions of dependency emerged from literature regard following aspects: 1) economic (income sources); 2) material (non-economic help in the management of the household from family of origin and friends); 3) emotional (need of an external emotional support). This contribution originates from a 2012 research on poverty and social exclusion, conducted in Italy by National Research Council, involving almost 1000 subjects. Three indexes have been built, referring to different dependencies detected by literature: Economic Dependency Index (EDI), Material Dependency Index (MDI) and Emotional Dependency Index (EDI). These indexes, together with other indicators, have been used with the aim of comparing female versus male respondents. Furthermore, women’ profiles have been drawn out that are potentially vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion (elderly women, women with precarious jobs and divorcees) more than others.

Keywords: poverty, dependencies, feminization of poverty