Gender and multidimensional poverty at the individual level in Mexico

Abstract

ABSTRACTDue to structural inequalities, women’s well-being faces greater privations than that of men, with both direct and indirect effects on individual well-being. Measuring women’s poverty relative to men’s is not easy due to the statistical reliance on the household as the unit of data collection and analysis. This is not ideal, as resources are unequally distributed within households. This study constructs a multidimensional poverty index in which the unit of analysis and identification is the individual, allowing researchers to identify and compare the poverty of Mexican women and men. Time poverty, which denotes a scarcity of time for leisure and self-care, is included. The multidimensional poverty index is constructed using nationally representative official Mexican data from 2020. The Alkire and Foster (2011, Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, Journal of Public Economics 95 (7-8): 476–487. doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.11.006) methodology is used to estimate and compare the poverty of women and men in different age groups. The results show that the multidimensional poverty index is greater for women than for men, and that its significance and importance vary with age. While education contributes most to the adjusted headcount ratio, time deprivation is also important, especially for women.

Keywords

• Multidimensional poverty
• time poverty
• gender
• women’s poverty
• Mexico