The price of poverty

Abstract

The contents of this article arose from questions raised during the course of a small research project examining the nature and extent of relative poverty in an inner-city setting. It questions the value of the mental health targets set out in The Health of the Nation, when social variables such as poverty and unemployment do not appear to be recognized as im portant influences on mental health and ill health. The article examines definitions of mental ill health and how the genders are said to suffer from this both disproportionately and differentially. It analyses the literature for the manner in which poverty has been experienced by both women and men and concludes that 'experience of poverty' studies appear to focus mainly on women while 'experience of unemployment' studies primarily seem to address men, though with some notable exceptions. The article concludes that the way in which poverty may be experienced and interpreted into different categories of mental ill health by each gender is an extremely complex issue and may be yet under- researched. It calls for further studies enabling the comparison between women's and men's interpretations of poverty to be examined in both 'experience of poverty' and 'experience of unemployment' projects.