Reflection paper Poverty

The one idea that had remained unchanged throughout writing my paper was poverty. Due to the current economic state America is currently facing, I felt like it was interesting to research upon why America is in poverty compared to other developed countries. At first, I was researching on the relationship between poverty and minimum wage. As this idea can have a whole research paper to its idea itself, I felt as if this paper would have end up being a report than an analysis. I was open to read different opinions from different scholarly authors on what they felt was the contributing factor to poverty. After doing more research on poverty in America, I discovered that it is mainly woman and children that living in poverty.

The relationship that first came to mind is because since American families consisting of single mothers are raising more than ever along with increasing divorce rates, has left single mothers in family in handling work and being the primary caretaker of the house. I became interested in researching if there is a trend in American families that affects women in the workplace. After a while, I was able to connect all research I have collected to one thesis. The research topic that comes into mind is what is the difference between how American typically view women or how are women discriminated in America different from other western countries? Why women in America are typically poorer compared to men in other countries? What does it say about American society?

As I continued to collect research and developed my thesis, “In order to make any further progression in the war against poverty, greater emphasis must be placed on gender equality and the removal of gender stereotypes that disproportionately affect women in the workplace,” the more the paper became unique. Many research articles I find only touch upon the fact that women are poor. However, the correlation between poverty and women was never specifically mentioned in any article I have read. I have felt that in my opinion, stereotypes, double standards and discrimination were all factors that contributed to women being poor.