Tackling child poverty - progress report 2024-2025: annex b - focus report on gender and poverty

Introduction

It has been well documented that children’s poverty is intrinsically linked to women’s poverty. Across Scottish society, irrespective of other protected characteristics, evidence shows us that women undertake the great majority of caring in both formal and informal sectors, with care being both paid and unpaid. Women are more likely to be the primary carer for their child(ren). While caring for children brings many benefits for carers and children, it can also reduce the time and energy that mothers ultimately have available to take on and/or remain in paid work. This in turn can limit their choices in terms of career and work location, which then reduces women’s earning potential over their lifetime.

As such, in order to tackle child poverty in Scotland, it is important to better understand the link between gender and poverty and uncover hidden poverty-gender dynamics for low income households with children.

Over the years, the Scottish Government has published detailed analysis focusing on the poverty experience of households in the priority family groups. These priority family groups represent household types at greater risk of poverty and for the most part they are managed by women. For example, data shows how lone parent families are more likely to be headed by women. Women are also more likely to be primary carers for babies, take the bulk of unpaid household responsibilities in large families of three children or more, or care for family members with a disability. We also know that households with a mother aged under 25 are at higher risk of being in poverty.

For the 2025 annual progress update, the focus is broader and rather than looking at a specific family type, analysis explores the wider experience of poverty by gender. The vast majority of the evidence focuses on the mothers’ experience as they are more likely to be the main carer. Where available, evidence on fathers is included.

This report addresses the following research questions:

1. What does the evidence say about the relationship between poverty and gender, specifically, how poverty rates have changed over time, but also how poverty is managed and experienced by gender?

2. What are the trends in the gender-poverty relationship over time and what do we know about progress across the three drivers of poverty by gender?

3. How do other equality characteristics (such as ethnicity, disability, age) interact with the relationship between gender and poverty?

4. How are Best Start, Bright Futures policies taking a gender lens in their design and implementation? What have we learned so far from the approach taken?

Throughout this report, we refer to gender rather than sex. On the whole, statistics collect information on sex, and reports refer to gender. In the research papers reviewed, there was no clear approach as to how gender and sex was being collected and reported. As such, for the purpose of this report, we used the current Scottish Government guidance. In it, gender relates to time and culture-specific constructions of a set of norms, roles and relationships that are founded on the labels of masculinity and femininity. This definition of gender covers the overarching societal structures, stereotypes and gender norms that can impact upon gendered experiences of poverty. It captures how structural factors can lead to, and embed, gender disparities and inequalities. The vast majority of evidence looks at gender from the angle of heteronormative relationships, that assume a mother, father and child/children. For example, when we consider employment, gender roles, assumptions and structures are critical and impact on a woman’s ability to access, and remain in, the labour market.

In terms of terminology, when we refer to low-income families we mean families who have a household income below 70% of the Scottish median after housing costs. ^[1]

Details on the methodology employed can be found in Annex A.

Structure of this report

Firstly, this report explores what we know about child poverty and gender poverty. It summarises available evidence on the gender–poverty dynamic.

The subsequent three chapters explores women’s experience around each of the key drivers of poverty. These are income from employment, cost of living and income from social security.

Then, the report looks at key Best Start, Bright Futures policies to understand how policies are designed and reviewed with an intersectional gender lens.

The final chapter provides conclusions.