The saying goes, “girls go to college to get more knowledge.” But what does it mean when the number of women living in poverty increases, even as their rate of education goes up?

Not only will women not make equal pay within our lifetimes, but according to a new study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, they’ll be living in higher poverty rates, too. The newest installment of IWPR’s series, Status of Women in the States: 2015, the report found a decrease in the percentage of women living above the poverty line to 85.4 in 2013 from 87.9 in 2002.


As with the gender wage gaps, the issues are more pronounced in the Southern states—particularly Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. But nowhere are women completely insulated from the issue. The findings, using data from as far back as 1996, suggest that despite significant gains in education over the past two decades, women remain severely behind men in both economic stability and business ownership.

Nationwide, 15.5 percent of women live in poverty, compared with 11.9 percent of men. But the discrepancy in poverty rates worsens when considering race. The poverty rate for Native American, black, and Hispanic women is nearly twice the rate for white women. The number is highest in the Native American community, where 28.1 percent of women live below the poverty line (compared to 11.7 percent of white women). Single mothers fare even worse, listed as twice as likely to be living in poverty than single fathers, 43.1 percent vs. 23.6 percent.