Poverty pathways: ethnic minority women's livelihoods

Ethnic minority women are amongst the poorest and most socially excluded people in the UK. Yet very little is known about their lives, or how to lift them out of poverty. Mainstream approaches simply do not see these women or their needs.

This report, published as part of Seeing Double, Fawcett’s flagship campaign on ethnic minority women, shows how the recession is on course to present two major risks if current policy approaches do not adapt:

• Ethnic minority women living in poverty will be locked into their destitution for the foreseeable future;
• Even more ethnic minority women will be made vulnerable to poverty.

The report outlines 7 key policy traps and the steps needed to get things right. It looks at household dynamics, moving beyond paid employment as a panacea for poverty, and how women’s lives change over their lifetimes. It shows how ethnic minority women need to be brought back into the policy picture if their poverty is to ever be addressed.

The report features a foreword by Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and looks at:

• The extent of the problem: what is the evidence?
• The policy context: what isn’t working for women?
• The policy context: what isn’t working for ethnic minority women?
• Seeing Double – The alternative approach
• The way forward: next steps.

To download the report, click the links below.