Abstract

Drawing on interviews with over 50 women in rural villages in Ghana, this book analyzes the poverty of older, rural, and illiterate women in Ghana within the framework of the feminization of poverty. The book demonstrates that alleged gains in gender equality are not universal even within the same country and that the feminization of poverty marginalizes certain groups in meta-analyses that focus heavily on monetary indicators. Specific issues explored include the conditions and processes that create poverty among older women, the role illiteracy and rural living play in the creation of poverty, women's experience and understanding of poverty, and the effectiveness of government interventions to alleviate or end rural poverty in Ghana. The author exposes a weakness in analyses of poverty that use income at the exclusion of personal and social characteristics, arguing that economic forces do not operate in a vacuum and an analysis that prioritizes non-monetary aspects of poverty is necessary to tease out its nuances. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers focusing on the intersections of gender, work, the economy, poverty, and rurality, particularly in western Africa.