Welfare Implications of Female Headship in Jamaican Households

Abstract

The paper first compares the economic status of male- and female-headed households and then the authors analyze differences in the use of resources (time and money) between the two groups. Finally, the paper focuses on the relative well-being of the children in these households. The authors' findings show that poverty and female headship are weakly linked. For instance, by drawing a poverty line that labels 10 percent of the Jamaican population as poor, the result is that 9 percent of people living in male-headed households are poor versus 11.1 percent of people living in female-headed households. This result is based on per capita consumption as the welfare indicator. If other indicators are used, or poverty measures other than the head count index, the differences become even smaller. If the main cause of concern for female-headed households is the expectation that female headship is highly correlated with poverty, then this concern can be put to rest. The study finds some evidence of small differences in resource use between the two types of households. Labor force participation data indicate that female heads are more likely to work in the market place than women with similar characteristics who are spouses of male heads of households. Again, the differences are small: on average 64.5 percent versus 57.9 percent. The analyses of household expenditures shows that female-headed households spend no more on food than do male headed households. However, when looking at more detailed food expenditures the differences are more pronounced. Female headships appear to be associated with spending on higher quality food items such as meat, vegetables, milk and other dairy products. Perhaps the most important question answered in this study is to what extent female headship influences child welfare. The results show that children in female-headed households have equal access to social services and equally good welfare outcomes as do the children in male-headed households.

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