The feminisation of poverty

Recommendation 1800 (2007)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 26 June 2007 (21st Sitting) (see Doc. 11276, report of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, rapporteur: Mrs Naghdalyan). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26 June 2007 (21st Sitting).

Thesaurus

1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its Resolution 1558 (2007) on the feminisation of poverty.

2. It believes that the Council of Europe has a fundamental role to play in ensuring social cohesion and combating poverty among women.

3. It therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers take account of gender in its social cohesion policies and co-operation programmes with Council of Europe member states, placing the accent on eradicating poverty among women.

4. It also recommends that the Committee of Ministers instruct the relevant intergovernmental committees to:

1 initiate a study of the feminisation of poverty in order to define gender-specific poverty indicators taking account of women’s needs and of income-sharing between women and men, which will serve as common reference points for the Council of Europe member states and enable them to determine the reasons why women are over-represented among the poor and suffer from more acute poverty; and to co-operate with the European Union to achieve this aim, in particular as regards statistics;

2 propose practical ways of including gender issues in poverty reduction strategies;

3 design a public and media awareness programme focusing on the fact that men as well as women should assume responsibility for children and other dependents.