Challenge Poverty Week 2021 – Poverty and Social Inequalities
Poverty and social inequalities go hand in hand. To challenge poverty we must challenge social inequalities and injustice. This blog post will explore how poverty overlaps with two equalities areas; gender and race. This is by no means exhaustive, for example, poverty also disproportionately impacts disabled people and some LGBT people. More information about the ways poverty is impacted by other equalities areas can be found here. This blog will explore ways in which poverty is racialised and gendered and how this can be challenged within education and efforts to close the poverty related attainment gap.
Poverty in Scotland disproportionately impacts Minority Ethnic communities. The Ethnicity and Poverty in Scotland 2020 report states,
‘In Scotland, although someone from a Black and minority ethnic background is nearly twice as likely to experience poverty as someone from a white Scottish/British background, anti-poverty policies and strategies have so far had little focus on race. Despite evidence of higher poverty rates amongst Black and minority children, even child poverty campaigners often fail to mention race in relation to these issues.’ (CRER, 2020 Report)
Across all child poverty measures, rates of poverty in Scotland for children in Minority Ethnic families have risen in recent years. In 2016-19, almost half (44%) of children in minority ethnic families were living in relative poverty, a 4 percentage point rise since 2015-18. Measuring child poverty rates can be complex. However, statistics show that for whichever measure of poverty used, higher rates are found for Minority Ethnic children. These higher poverty rates for Minority Ethnic children have been persistent for many years in Scotland, and there are indications that levels are rising. (Taking Stock – Race Equality in Scotland)
Poverty in Scotland is also profoundly gendered and this is closely linked to children’s wellbeing and attainment. Women across Scotland are more likely to be in poverty, and find it more difficult to escape poverty, due to the impact of economic and labour inequality and the prevalence of violence against women and girls. 91% of lone parents in Scotland are women and women make up 95% of lone parents receiving Income Support. 38% of children in lone parent households live in poverty. (The Improvement Service, CPAG)
Scottish academic, Morag Treanor speaks of the misunderstanding of poverty amongst educators, and how it is often attributed to parental values, choices and financial skills as opposed to ‘institutional structures and values’ (Treanor, M. 2020). For example, the perception of lone parenthood is inherently sexist. The majority of lone parents are women (91%) and that percentage has stayed stable over the last few years. Lone mothers are often vilified by the media and perceived as ‘welfare-dependent, as bad parents responsible for raising feral children’ (Treanor, M. 2020). Lone mother families are at higher risk of poverty, due to many of the factors that contribute to the gender pay gap. Poverty is not inevitable for lone parent families, it depends on the policies and structures in place to support them, if these are absent then poverty is more likely.
The two examples of race and gender display some of the ways that poverty and injustice overlap, the reality is that for individuals facing multiple layers of discrimination, the impact of poverty is even more acute.
Challenging poverty therefore requires us to simultaneously be challenging social injustice and inequality. Work in education to address the poverty related attainment gap cannot happen in isolation, but instead should be part of a larger body of work that addresses inequalities and discrimination both within the education setting and within communities and families. For example, deconstructing gender roles can help prevent the cycle of poverty – single mothers are more likely to experience poverty if their mother has (Treanor, M. 2020). Helping to widen opportunities can address this too. Whilst boys may be the most impacted in terms of the poverty related attainment gap, this gap is significantly less pronounced in institutions where gender constructs are less apparent. The need to address inherent gender norms is therefore crucial to addressing the attainment gap and will benefit children and young people of all genders. It should also be kept in mind that even though the attainment of boys living in poverty is lower, girls are still more likely to be impacted long term by poverty due to the structures of gender inequality. The Improving Gender Balance an Equalities team have a variety of tools and training which support educators to address gender inequality in their setting. Addressing racism and racial inequality in education is also crucial to effectively address poverty. Education Scotland’s Promoting race equality and anti-racist education resource outlines a whole setting approach to embedding race equality within education. The Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights – anti-racist policy provides ideas for better practice that could be used when planning poverty related policy developments.
