Who's Hungry?

Women are faced with issues such as food insecurity, lack of ability to obtain nutritious food, lack of support systems, feelings of judgment, and lastly stress and its impacts, (Patricia L. Williams et al., 2012). The study went on to evaluate women’s perspectives of how they manage when they are unable to provide for themselves and their family. After I read this article, I wanted to share my findings from further research done on this topic.

            Over the duration of this course, we have become increasingly aware of poverty restrictions in Canada. Poverty in Canada is an important issue that many people are faced with. It is not a secret that women experience poverty differently then men do and that there are gender gaps in wages and in job positions in the workplace, (Patricia L. Williams et al 2012). This makes it evident that women are not equal with men. This is something we all know. Women experiencing inequality with those two areas in the workplace creates a cycle that leaves women in poverty more than we think. It should also be noted that many policies exclude women who are working for low wages and are not recipients of income assistance prior to their employment, (Patricia L. Williams et al 2012).

With these barriers there is another barrier added. This is the fact that in many occasions a male will end up with a job that a female applied for, which leaves women to look for other resources as a means of income, (Patricia L. Williams et al 2012). Looking for resources, the ones found are often not enough and the one resource that I found most commonly restricting was the need for food, (Patricia L. Williams et al 2012). Women are faced with food barriers, which in turn leaves their children faced with food barriers.

         Some of the most interesting facts I found within the article were facts that I was not aware of and I have become saddened to know about. A social policy that is supposed to help women is also setting up more barriers for them. Women experienced stress in the context of having to deal with the very organizations that were meant to help them. A number of participants recounted stories of being denied assistance, (Patricia L. Williams et al 2012).

          I read that food banks aren’t all they are assumed to be, that the quality can be very bad, the hours of operation are not easy to work with, and sometimes women are only allowed a few times a year, (Patricia L. Williams et al 2012). This was an awakening group of facts for me because you want to believe that those in need are being assisted but the belief itself is not enough when the reality is that the help is not actually as beneficial as we may think.

        A barrier that women receiving income assistance share the commonality of food security is the assurance and confidence that enough food would be available and accessible in the present and the future, (Patricia L. Williams et al 2012).

       In addition, it should be noted that the ones in need are not always those you expect to be. At The Daily Bread food bank in Toronto; 19 percent were working, 33 percent had some college or university education, 41 percent had a disability or long term illness, 37 percent were children, and 42 percent of all said they go hungry at least once a week, (Hick, Steven 2007).

          Women are also faced with compromises. Women have to pay the phone bill and the power bill and the only place they have control over is the food budget, which is where low-income women must compromise their and their children's nutrition to obtain sufficient quantities of food, (Patricia L. Williams, et al., 2012)

          Another compromise women have to make is social acceptance. People look down on them and living in smaller communities makes it more of an issue, and damages self worth feelings, (Patricia L. Williams, et al., 2012)

       Present state child-support laws have fallen far behind the needs of a rapidly growing population of one-parent homes and that enforcement of the existing inadequate laws is weakly and unevenly applied, (Sawhill, Isabel 1976).

           In conclusion, women remain among the poorest of the poor in Canada. As Canada enters the 21st century, almost 19% of adult women are poor, and about 2.2 million adult women are now counted as low income, compared with 1.8 million who had low incomes in 1980, (Townson, Monica 2000). These statistics are increasing and unfortunately, our society thinks that there are progressions being made. I hope that my blog has outlined some of the ways in which this policy looks good on the outside but has clear shortcomings once you’re exposed to the reality of being hungry.

 Geraldine

Hick, Steven. (2007). Social Welfare in Canada: Understanding Income Security,

Second Edition, Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishers. ISBN 1-55077-168-8.

Patricia L. Williams, Rita B. MacAulay, Barbara J. Anderson, Kimberlee Barro, Doris

E. Gillis, Christine P. Johnson, Lynn L. Langille, Shelley Moran & Debra E.

Reimer. (2012). I Would Have Never Thought That I Would Be in Such a

Predicament. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, Volume 7, pages 253-270. 

Sawhill, Isabel. (1976). Discrimination and Poverty among Women Who

Head  Families. , Women and the Workplace: The Implications of

Occupational. Volume 1, pages 201-211.

Townson, Monica. (2000). A Report Card on Women and Poverty. The Canadian

Centre for Policy Alternatives acknowledges the financial support of the Canadian Labour Congress.