Doctoral Dissertation Research in Geography and Regional Science

来自发展中国家的数据显示，主要由于妇女在社会中的地位，女性户主与贫穷之间有很强的相关性。家庭成员遭受贫困的直接影响，如营养不良、疾病和暴力，他们往往被迫放弃学业而去工作。另一方面，在外围国家的研究表明，妇女的收入更多地用于家庭需要，家务分配更加平等，家庭环境暴力较少。这就引发了关于女性担任领导职务对妇女和家庭贫困的影响的辩论。这个项目将涉及对墨西哥两个城市的妇女与贫穷之间的联系进行比较研究。它将审查妇女担任户主的情况以及这些家庭陷入或摆脱贫穷的机制。将收集两种不同城市文化环境下的女性和非女性户主家庭的数据。结构化和非结构化访谈以及劳动力和家庭历史的民族志数据将构成分析的基础。分析将使用专门为探索人种学数据的模式和主题而设计的软件进行。这项研究的结果将增加关于发展中国家家庭结构与贫穷之间关系的新知识。它将对妇女在社会、劳动力市场和家庭中的地位提供重要的见解。它还将填补拉丁美洲这一人口和社会迅速变化地区关于女性户主家庭知识方面的重要空白。

Data from the developing world show a strong correlation between female household headship and poverty, due largely to the status of women in society. Household members suffer the direct effects of poverty such as malnourishment, disease, and violence, and they are often forced to trade off schooling for work. On the other hand, research in the peripheral countries shows a greater devotion of women's income to household needs, a more egalitarian distribution of domestic chores, and a less violent domestic environment. This has opened up to debate the issue of the effect of female headship on women's and household poverty. This project will involve comparative research on the link between women and poverty in two Mexican cities. It will examine the circumstances under which female headship arises and the mechanisms by which these households fall into or break out of poverty. Data will be collected for both female and non-female headed households in two different urban cultural environments. Both structured and unstructured interviews as well as ethnographic data on labor and household histories will form the basis for the analysis. Analysis will be performed with special software designed for exploring patterns and themes in ethnographic data. Results of this research will add new knowledge on the relationship between household structure and poverty in developing countries. It will provide important insights into the position of women in society, the labor market, and the home. It will also fill in important gaps in knowledge about female headed households in Latin America, an area of rapid demographic and social change.