Gender, poverty and empowerment

Abstract

This article discusses the 'feminization of poverty' and the hypothesis that women in Danish society are at greater risk of experiencing relative poverty (lack of resources) than men, while social disintegration and dis empowerment—social exclusion—are increasingly problems for men. On the social and personal level, women are often more capable than men of developing new life strategies, and women have created a number of 'empowerment bases' in the Danish welfare state, for example, daytime folk high schools and local social experimental projects.