Perhaps the most talked about topic in economics is poverty. It is a problem in society that everyone agrees needs to be fixed. With its multitude of layers, there is not just one easy fix. What most people don’t know, however, is the difference in impact it has on women than men, and how policies geared toward women could help lower poverty rates.

In 2012, 46.5 million people fell below the poverty threshold, according to the US Census. Of those people, 55.57 percent are women. In the US, 50.35 percent of families in poverty are female headed, compared to the 10.75 percent that are male headed. With so many women in poverty, creating policies that are geared towards women would have a huge economic impact on not only the individual women, but  also the families that they provide for.

Even today, women only earn 77 cents to the dollar of those of their male counterparts in the US. In labor theory, this is thought to be because women eventually leave the job market or spend less time in the job market once they start having children, making it a riskier investment for the employer. Women are then forced to take a lower wage since they “choose” to eventually have families. The problem with this rational is that women never really chose to be the gender that gives birth and take on that role in society. If women choose to leave the work place in order to raise their children, that is only because that is what society tells us is the right thing for a woman to be doing. If it were the social norm for men to stay home with the children, things would potentially be different. Having a family is essential to the sustainability of the human race, so why should women be punished for it? Labor theory alone doesn’t explain the wage gap between men and women. With what we have seen in U.S history, it would be ignorant to say that some form of sexism isn’t involved with the wage gap, considering it took about 70 years for women just to get the right to vote. We consider ourselves an advanced society, but how advance could we really be if there is still pay discrimination amongst genders?

In early April, the senate once again voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act. If women were to get equal pay, it could potential decrease not just the poverty rate of women, but also the poverty rate as a whole. However, there are still other things the government could do help. Studies have shown that when people get subsidies for childcare, they are more likely to work more hours than if they needed to pay for it themselves. If the government were to make such subsidies more readily available, women would be able to work more hours and earn more income.

Poverty has a huge impact on women in the US. With the amount of the people in poverty being women, taking measures towards helping them would directly affect the poverty rate not just for women but also for the people that they provide for. Taking steps towards reducing the poverty of women can be an effective way to tackle poverty as a whole.