Highlights from The Women’s Fund Testimony:

Women and girls represent 52% of Essex County’s population but continue to bear a significantly disproportionate burden of poverty, workplace inequity, and other barriers to self-sufficiency and self-determination.

Eleven percent of women and girls in Essex County live in poverty, compared to 9% of men and boys.

Poverty is particularly acute for women, single heads of household (“female householders”), and their families. With 27% of Essex County’s children living in female householder homes, critical issues not only challenge the well-being of these women, but impact the well-being and future of their children and the long-term strength of the community.

Over 1/5th of all Essex County families are headed by a female householder, and these numbers are increasing.

By every measure, female householders and their families have the lowest median income and the highest poverty levels of all family types.

• Median income is $29,000 for female householders with children.

• Thirty-three percent of female householders with children live below the poverty level.  This is in sharp contrast to 13% of male householders and 3% of married couple families.  

• Not surprisingly, the rate of poverty increases significantly with the increase in number of children.  Sixty-three percent of female householders with 3-4 children live below the poverty level.

Of the nearly 75,000 people in Essex County who now live below the poverty level, nearly half, 47%, live in female householder families. 

These concentrated numbers suggest that a strategic focus on female householders and their families can be a highly effective and efficient approach to target much of poverty and its issues.