Effect of Poverty on Women's Healthcare - Research Paper Example

health, it becomes imperative to identify and disclose health disparities related to gender and economic level so that appropriate actions are taken to help the needful. In this article, feminization of poverty and the health effects of poverty on women is discussed. It is a well known fact that the health of women is not only determined by biological factors but also by several social factors, the most important of which is poverty. In fact, 2 out of every 3 women in the world are plagued by poverty leading to an array of clinical problems like malnutrition, anemia, easy fatigability, increased susceptibility to infections and even premature death (Cohen, 1994).

Though several organizations like the World Health Organization have asserted that health is a fundamental right of every human being irrespective of sex and other aspects, several women are being denied of this right and the main cause for this happens to be poverty. It is very important to tackle poverty of women for the purpose of long term success of the child poverty strategy of the Government (WBG, 2005). In this essay, the impact of poverty on the health care of women will be discussed through review of appropriate literature.

In several countries like even developed countries like Canada, the poverty rates of women across all age groups is higher than in men. One of the main reasons for poverty among women is their dependency for living. In many races, women are not provided enough education and this leads to poor vocational opportunity and poverty. Many researchers favour the link between education and poverty (Zaki and El-Deeb, 2004). Also, many women cannot get employed full-time because of the responsibilities they have towards their children, husbands and elderly people at home.

Lack of awareness which is more predominant in those belonging to lower socio-economic group is another major factor that influences health. In a study by Ailinget et al (2009), it was found that poor women had lower