Gender Poverty Gap Grows in Recovery: Men’s Poverty Dropped Since Recession, Women’s Poverty Stagnates

The persistent gap in male and female poverty has been growing during the economic recovery, with 16.3 percent of females, and 13.6 percent of males living in poverty in 2012. The gender poverty gap reached an historic low in 2010 just after the official end of the recession, when 16.2 percent of females, and 14.0 percent of males lived in poverty (Figure 1).