The Roles of Men and Women in Poverty Reduction in Families Receiving Social Assistance

Abstract

The main purpose of the article is to outline the roles of men and women in poverty reduction in families receiving social assistance. The paper is based on the results of qualitative research. The study involved 90 social workers from across Poland, working in large, big and small cities, as well as rural areas. The research was carried out with the aid of the technique of an individual in-depth interview. The statistical data collected by various social welfare centers show that over 80% of the people applying for social support are women, and they are as a rule not single mothers, but represent a full family in dealing with social welfare institutions. Such a situation results, according to some social workers, from the fact that the families receiving assistance often represent a traditional model of a family with fixed roles, where gender is the main criterion for the division of tasks in the family – a man takes up a job (on full-time or part-time basis), and a woman runs the household, takes care of the children and represents the family in dealing with institutions. More importantly, even if a man is unemployed and fails to comply with traditional role of a breadwinner, changing traditional gender roles is problematic. Some men do not want to play the roles stereotypically attributed to women, such as taking care of children and the household, so that women could work professionally or improve their opportunities in the labor market by participation in various trainings or courses. Such an attitude often hinders effective support and lessens the chance to minimize the effects of family poverty. Social workers also drew attention to the functioning of the so-called managerial model of matriarchy, in which a woman feels and is responsible for everything related to well-being and functioning of the family. In some families benefiting from social assistance, it is a woman who assumes full responsibility for the family. Significantly enough, social workers point out that all the responsibility for the problems and for a change in the family is attributed to women. The aim of social work is usually to assist women and enable them to reconcile childcare and work (effective parenting); what is often forgotten, however, is to engage fathers in family life, thus showing new social patterns.