Feminization of poverty in Madrid and its Municipality

Frameworks, Impact, Research

January-June 2019


The Madrid City Council commissioned us to work on the feminization of poverty in the city: What is the situation at the local level? What is the City Council doing about it? How, if at all, should it change its actions? Together with staff from the City Council itself and with the support of external experts, we have identified key changes to advance in addressing this reality from a transformative gender perspective.

But, first, we had to answer one question: what is this “reality” to be changed? We do not want “equal poverty”. What we want is to stop a double process: (1) a gender-based precarization and impoverishment process, and (2) the feminization of survival.

The main deficiencies (current or potential) of the identified municipal policies are: the replication of maternalist and family biases, the contribution to men’s de-responsibilization, the focus on urgency to the detriment of structural changes, the stigmatization and control of people entitled to rights, and the neglect or weakening of the community.

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