Feminization of poverty. my title is tumbling in the dark or endless pain - Essay Example

This is nothing but feminization of poverty. This also requires us to analyze this fact under different circumstances. In a famous novel “The mairaculous of Amalia Gomez”, John Rechy describes the case study of feminization of women in a splendid and heart touching manner after getting inspired from a real incident of a Mexico-American woman (Rechy, 1991). Hence, an attempt has been made to study the feminization of poverty and to analyze the extent to which feminization of poverty is experienced by Amalia Gomez with the following thesis statements. 1. What is the definition of the "feminization of poverty" and how does it apply to Amalia Gomez'a life? 2. How does the "feminization of Poverty" lead the psychological mechanism of denial in Amalia?

How do we see strong pull toward denial in her life? 3) How do we see a subconscious desire in Amalia to move from denial to "truth"? 4) What is Amalia"s epiphany? What does this epiphany say about her? Let us analyze one by one as follows: 1. What is the definition of the "feminization of poverty" and how does it apply to Amalia Gomez'a life? The feminization of poverty may be defined as the condition in which women experience higher level of poverty compared to that of men in several fields of our society (Fukuda-Parr, 1999).

It is nothing but a state of being women that makes them poorer or susceptible to poverty compared to men in the same society. In other words, the feminization of poverty reflects a phenomenon in which women are represented disproportionately in terms of their percentage of total world poverty. For example, it was reported that the number of women at the age of 60 years in United States of America who are subjected to poverty was found to be significantly higher than the number of men at the same age.

Even if in a developed nation like USA, if this position exists, it only confirms the fact that the female gender is proportionate with the extent of poverty which is other wise known as feminization of poverty. The feminization of poverty is mainly caused by some factors like their social status, lower literacy rate and lower rate of employment. In several regions, women are subjected to ill treatment in various spheres of life. Their decision making at domestic and society level has been quite unsatisfactory resulting in their poverty.

In several developing nations, the good proportion of women are restricted to domestic works and child care and they have little or no chance to earn their livelihood (Chant, 2006). Even in terms of wages, lot of disparity exists between the men and women reflecting the feminization of poverty. In a country like Cyprus, as high as 24 % gender pay gap was noticed reflecting a pathetic situation. Taking these constraints of women in consideration, some sections of people in the society started exploiting them which in turn led to feminization of poverty.

The life of Amalia Gomez according to “The mairaculous of Amalia Gomez”, by John Rechy depicts the same. Hence, the feminization of poverty can be well applied to the life of Amalia Gomez. Amalia Gomez is a Mexico-American lady who had tasted bitter experience of life due to poverty and exploitation of her by different people at different times. Several people including her ex-husbands tried to take the advantage of her weak financial position and she was compelled to listen to them due to her poverty and after