A Report Card on Women and Poverty

Ottawa--Poverty is still a women's issue - even though people no longer seem to be talking about it. Almost 19% of adult women in Canada are poor. That's the highest rate of women's poverty in two decades.

In A Report Card on Women and Poverty, prepared for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, economist Monica Townson found that, since 1980, the percentage of women living in poverty has been climbing steadily. Women remain among the poorest of the poor, says Townson. And recent government policies have contributed to the growing poverty of women, she notes.