贫困女性化与女性贫困化:实证基础与理论悖论

自皮尔斯1978年提出"贫困女性化"概念以来,女性与贫困的关联研究成为劳动经济学、家庭社会学、人类学、发展研究以及女性主义研究的重要领域。在全球化语境下,贫困女性化的现象具有客观性,但在不同政治经济文化条件下呈现的形式则有所不同,因此不能简单地将其看作一成不变的全球性现象。具体而言,对贫困女性化的研究不能只关注收入和消费维度;在研究方法上需要超越以"女性户主家庭"为分析单元的局限性,将贫困问题放置于宽化的性别和其他群体领域,特别需要关注多维度的贫困和致贫的原因;针对城市化、工业化转型过程中所出现的女性的竞争劣势性也需要从总体社会关系的角度加以分析,单一的女性本位的发展干预往往会产生负面结果。本文认为,贫困女性化虽然具有实证研究的支持,但是女性与贫困问题在不同经济社会语境和社会关系维度上呈现出了复杂性和多样性。

Feminization of Poverty and Impoverishment of Women:Empirical Evidences and Theoretical Dilemma

Since Pierce proposed the concept of"feminization of poverty"in 1978,the subject of women and poverty has become the focus from many fields of inquiries such as labour economics,family sociology,anthropology,development studies,and feminist studies. Under certain conditions,the feminization of poverty is an matter of fact. However,its representation differs form various political,economic,and cultural conditions. Feminization of poverty cannot be seen as a generalized global phenomenon. The research on the feminization of poverty must not only focus on the dimensions of income and consumption. The research method needs to move beyond an analytical unit such as female-headed households,and broadened poverty issues to genders and other groups. Multidimensional poverty and its causes should be taken into account. The disadvantages of women in the process of urbanization and industrialization need to be analysed from the perspective of overall social relations. Development interventions that narrowly focus on women often produce negative results. In the sum,this article synthesizes the empirical evidence of the feminization of poverty through literature studies,and analysizes the complexity and diversity of women and poverty linkage.