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Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 395 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 360-395).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-145). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

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Given the growth of households headed by women, one of the biggest social concerns is the high poverty level within these households. Studies have shown that individuals living in female-headed households are more likely to be in poverty than those in other types of households due to women's disadvantaged position in the labor market. However, the disadvantage of women in the labor market does not necessarily lead to poverty within households headed by women. The livelihood of female-headed households is determined by contextual factors as well as the labor market condition, because the labor market, family and welfare policies all contribute to family well-being within a particular national context. Using both quantitative and qualitative method, I examine various components that are associated with social and family life of Mexican female heads and single mothers: living arrangements, household practices, the labor market, and welfare policy. Interview data with Mexican single mothers provide this research with basic research questions as well as evidences supporting the findings of quantitative analyses about the association between poverty and those women. Quantitative data analyses show that kinship network is important resources of welfare of female-headed or single-mother households in Mexico. First, the prevalence of female-headed households in Mexico is associated with gender-specific migration, increased economic opportunities for women, and marriage-market conditions. Second, Mexican female heads have household income relatively higher than or equivalent to that of male heads, and this peculiarity is attributed to the financial support to female-headed households provided by family networks, and to the selection process of single mothers. Third, extended family members residing with mothers affect their time allocation, and the effects vary by the gender of the extended family member and the mothers' marital status. / text

This thesis investigates how female-headed households solve their housing needs. Housing is an important resource for them: first because women spend more time in the house and home conditions are of great concern to them because these determine the time and difficulties in fulfilling their domestic responsibilities and, second, because the home is the site of production and economic activities that help increase women's low incomes. / The study is based on the analysis of different women's lives in three different neighborhoods in Medellin, Colombia. This is a qualitative study aimed at providing insight into household patterns, and determining housing alternatives. / The prevalence of female-headed households varies greatly among countries, particularly in the developing regions, and, in recent years, these have emerged as the subject of social concern. As the availability of data increases it becomes clear that these households are heterogeneous and not a uniform group (as previously assumed) in terms of marital status, life cycles and socioeconomic conditions. For this reason, their heterogeneity needs to be taken into consideration in policy formulation.

An in-depth study is conducted into ten female-headed households in the township of Rini, an underprivileged section of Grahamstown in the Eastem Cape region of South Africa. The study provides information on the way in which such households function in conditions of poverty and underemployment. The meaning of the term 'household' is clearly defined. A household consists of a group of people, who may or may not be kin-related, but who usually live under the same roof, eat together and share resources. Household members may be absent for varying periods of time, but are still considered to have rights in the household to which they belong. The female-headed household usually contains a core of adult women who are often uterine kin. Men are frequently members of these households and are usually related to the women who form the core. Their status and roles in such households are defined and intra-household relations between household members are discussed. In this study, female headship is observed to occur in conditions of poverty when an elderly woman is widowed, receives a regular income in the form of and old age pension, and when her status as the senior member of the household is acknowledged. The presence of men in female-headed households has not been widely emphasised in other studies, either of the female-headed household itself, or in research done in this area of South Africa. An attempt is therefore made to illustrate the way in which men function in these households and the varying roles they play. An attempt is also made to describe other structures and practices which support the female-headed household in a rapidly changing urban environment. These include church membership, burial society membership, the informal economy, wider kinship networks and, in the case of the men, the rite of circumcision.

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Housing typologies based on the traditional family no longer satisfy the needs of the majority of households. Woman-led families are impeded in their search for appropriate housing by their low wages and family responsibilities, compounded by the blindness of housing-policy makers to their existence. Historical models of collective dwellings are steeped in the ideology of the period and yield few direct practical solutions to the current dilemma. The richness of this housing, however, which evolved during a time of dramatic social change underscores the blandness of current housing solutions. Feminists insist that housing and urban design solutions should challenge the gender defined roles of "homemaker" and "childcare giver" and the restricted mobility of women in cities and suburbs. The endorsement of new housing typologies must be translated into their realisation and subsequent analysis.