Preview

Analysis Of The Feminization Of Poverty: Erin Brokovich

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
751 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis Of The Feminization Of Poverty: Erin Brokovich
The Feminization of Poverty Student
School

The Feminization of Poverty Feminization of poverty refers to an expression that describes the state of women’s increasing presence amongst the poorest people in the society. The term is used in categorizing those women who not only lack in income or material needs, but those who lack with the basic capabilities of providing for themselves (Pearce, 1978). Such would include a basic education or the necessary skills to uphold any form of employment that would ensure that such women are able to fetch for themselves or their families. In the fortunate circumstances that such women are able to secure some form of employment, they are usually accommodated in the low paying …show more content…
The film, starred by Julia Roberts, portrays the life of a single mother who struggles to provide for her three children without any substantial employment (Bromley, 2000). After being involved in an accident, the woman sues the driver and hires Ed Masyr to act as her lawyer. Unfortunately, due to her loud mouth and antics in court, she ends up losing the case. Her lawyer offers an opportunity to work as a research assistant. This is where her luck chips in and she is able to discover the grave injustice that a large company, Pacific Gas and Electric, had been conducting against the people of Hinkley (Bromley, 2000). Through the lawyer, she helps the people to gat justice and a compensation of nearly $333 million to all the people affected in the area (Ellis, …show more content…
However, due to her lack of proper education or any basic skill, she is not able to secure any employment from the numerous applications she makes. All the places she applies for requires some form of skill or expertise which she lacks (Ellis, 2001). Erin’s lack of employment is the first case of feminization of poverty. Being a woman who does not have any proper education or skill, no one is willing to provide her with any form of opportunity through which she can provide for her young children. This situation goes on even after Erin is involved in an accident and goes ahead to lose the case which she had filed against the driver. Lack of employment and the necessary skills are highlighted from the interview scene where she had applied for employment in the doctor’s office (Brumley,
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Feminization of Poverty in Canada
    • 1391 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Feminization of Poverty in Canada

    Poverty can be defined as “the lack of resources necessary for material well-being” (Mooney, Holmes, Knox & Schacht, 2011). In Canada, poverty affects a wide variety of individuals, although women have become increasingly overrepresented in this area. This is due to a phenomenon known as the feminization of poverty, a phrase attributed to researcher Diana Pearce. The question of ‘why’ there are more females living in poverty, is important to examine since this issue means that half of the population is more likely to experience poverty. In order to understand why this is the case, we must examine some of the contributing factors, including: economic vulnerability and the rise of female-led single parent families, in addition to why this is a problem in Canada. We will examine these factors using the feminist and symbolic interactionist perspectives. Before examining the contributing factors, however, we must get a better understanding of what poverty is and how it is measured in Canada.…

    • 1391 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pt1420 Unit 1 Study Guide
    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Pt1420 Unit 1 Study Guide

    3. Requests the implementation of specific measures to address the feminization of poverty and generalize gender perspectives in all policies and perspectives for the eradication of poverty through methods such as, but not limited to:…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ehrenreich Why Me Analysis
    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ehrenreich Why Me Analysis

    Through the survey “Why me?” researchers “found these women were most likely to attribute their poverty to issues related to having children, their romantic relationships, and structural government blame” and the “least endorsed attributions for poverty were fatalistic and individualistic reasons” (“Why me?”, 320). This concept was evident in Ehrenreich’s case as she found it extremely difficult to find a job, “no one of the twenty places I’ve applied calls me for an interview” (Ehrenreich, 249). She also emphasized the unrealistic salary provided for workers especially who are single mothers, “by taking $6 to $7 an hour, perhaps subtracting a dollar or two an hour for child care, multiplying it by 160 hours a month, and comparing the results to prevailing rents” (Ehrenreich, 247).…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mexican Maquiladora
    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mexican Maquiladora

    (a) In all three cases, women are in bad structural positions because of combined form of discourses, such as gender, nationality, class, and development discourse. Gender discourse creates the subject being passive, subordinated, and weak. When these images of the subject are influenced by other discourses, the gender oppression is further linked to other forms of the exclusion l. In the Mexican maquiladora case, their gender oppression is linked to exclusion of nationality, the Mexican women. In the Sangtin collective, their gender oppression is linked to casteism, the poor Dalit women. In the case of Microfinance loans, it is connected to material wealth, lack of resources for women.…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Poverty In 2paac's Song Brendas Got A Baby
    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Poverty In 2paac's Song Brendas Got A Baby

    Poverty is a depressing situation. Being impoverished means that you or your family can not afford certain material items. Mostly ones everyone needs. This also affects the children of the family as they live in poverty for most of their lives and continue the poverty cycle. However bad the situation there is a solution. Poverty should be eradicated by a balance government and personal help.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Women During The Mongol Era
    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Women During The Mongol Era

    In today’s world, women have been working hard to emphasize their role in the society. Whether it be as wives, mothers, friends or as workers. Women have been noticed for achieving great success around the world. However, in some third world countries the rights of woman are being oppressed and they are merely being considered as objects or materials. Even in todays advanced world, young girls and women are sold off to wealthy men in exchange for some money.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Task Force
    • 4087 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Task Force

    The simple measure of poverty is when a family’s income is not meeting its needs. The underlying causes of poverty are much more convoluted, relating to the distribution of government power, a continuously widening income gap, differences in cultural attitudes and ideologies, and inequalities in wealth and education. Other social conditions tend to perpetuate poverty, such as cultural differences in family life and attitudes toward education and inequality within education and job markets, based on gender or socioeconomic status. The consequences of poverty are evident among our society. Supporting evidence includes an increase in domestic violence, homelessness, and substance abuse; and other social problems, poor nutrition and care for children, and inequality in education, which all directly result from the effects of poverty on both the…

    • 4087 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    School
    • 792 Words
    • 3 Pages

    School

    First Slide>>Introduction- Millions of women throughout the world live in conditions in which they are deprived of their basic human rights for no other reason than their gender. Women throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia were unable to have any influence over the political, religious or cultural lives of their societies. They couldn’t own property or inherit land and wealth, and were frequently treated as property themselves.…

    • 792 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Katherine Mansfield Sociology
    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Katherine Mansfield Sociology

    Our major causes of poverty issues is lack of education and feminization of poverty.(Huber,J &Chalfant 1974) . I did notice there was structural poverty. It seem like a lot of individuals who had a low income jobs or have a good paying job for a while. All of sudden, they would loss everything. When i observe how those people walk into the food bank and the salvation Army, i notice their lack of social skills wasn't very good what so ever. They wasn't very nice towards the volunteers and the workers of those places. I notices how different type of individual who was dress in casual clothes had fine social skills and the ones who look like they barely don't have anything to their name lacked in social skills. I did saw a decent amount of young females at those places . I…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sociological Perspective On Poverty
    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Sociological Perspective On Poverty

    Men typically dominate the workplace as the primary owners of business and property of the leading capitalist class. Most women typically work in lower paying jobs with less opportunity for advancement in the workplace. Women are often exploited because of their femininity leading to gender bias and discrimination in the job market. The feminization of poverty is a growing issue in due partially to the fact that women are paid approximately 77 cents on the dollar compared to the wages a man makes in the same occupation. (Kendall, 2014, p.244)…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Child Poverty In The United States
    • 1875 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Child Poverty In The United States

    women. The beliefs of the causes of poverty according to the Encyclopedia of Women and…

    • 1875 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Feminization Of Poverty In The United States
    • 273 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Feminization Of Poverty In The United States

    There are also other things impacting the feminization of poverty. One issue that has had a huge impact is the mass incarceration across the country. The men that would otherwise be working to help support a family are in prison, and when they get out of prison, they either can’t get a job or they can’t find a place to live. This causes poverty to become even more feminized…

    • 273 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Best Essays

    Generational Poverty
    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Generational Poverty

    This week in class the focus has been on generational poverty. There are a lot of key factors that lead to poverty. Poverty does not exist because people want it to. Poverty is a way of life for those who don’t know another way and feel that they don’t have a way out. Every day in society people turn their heads or frown up their nose at people who they see living in poverty because they think they are better than them and will not lift a hand to help them out. The big question is why do we do this? In most cases, the poverty line or clash of the classes are based on wealth and there is certainly a variation in the wealth among the population. But classism exists from the beginning of education to death. Schools pass out grades and establish an intelligence stratification. The better students take higher academic classes and separate themselves from students taking lower academic classes. College graduates typically achieve better incomes than non-college graduates and raise higher in wealth and stratification. Though it may seem unfair, typically those who achieve better grades are those individuals who apply themselves and try hard to get out of the situation that they are in if it is bad. Achieve is rewarded while sloth is not rewarded. Society works best this way, because it gives incentives for everyone to achieve, while not rewarding those who do not make and effort or better yet even try. Woman play a big role in the family when it comes to poverty. Most of the families are single parented. In this paper, I will be discuss what generational poverty is. Also I will discuss and identify the complex factors involved in overcoming generational poverty, explain challenges the aged face when there is a lack of access to employment and describe the unique challenges that women face through the different life stages. Lastly it will be explained how what I have learned changed my perspective and the way in which I approach…

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Feminization Of Poverty In The United States Essay
    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Feminization Of Poverty In The United States Essay

    One of the things that we must remember with poverty is that it is a structural problem, especially for women, of which 15.6 percent are living in poverty in the United States. This compared to 13 percent of men who are living in poverty. (U.S. Bureau of the Census, qtd in Aulette and Wittner) These numbers also increase for people of different races, including an increased gap between women and men within those races. This phenomenon is called the “feminization of poverty,” simply women are more likely to be living in poverty compared to men. (Aulette and Wittner) The feminization of poverty represents how poverty in our country is sexist. Women in the United States only earn 81 percent of what men make and the United States remains one of…

    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Causes Of Poverty In Canada
    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Causes Of Poverty In Canada

    Poverty is a complicated issue. It is a phenomenon not limited to the third world. It’s an issue even faced by the wealthiest countries. There are many reasons and causes, and there are equally as many disagreements on where the blame should lay. People who are not poor often blame the less fortunate for their own situation and tend to have little sympathy. Those who are in poverty often blame society for making it impossible to escape from their situation. Poverty also tends to affect groups within society differently. One of the main divides is gender based where women are more likely to find themselves falling within the lower levels and in greater numbers into poverty. Regardless of the causes and who is to blame, this is an issue that…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics