Working Women's Paid Labor: Part II

Urban poverty creates very specific problems for poor working mothers. They cannot afford to leave their homes, because they do not make enough money at their minimum wage jobs. This means that they themselves are probably not well educated, and it leads to their children probably not getting a very extensive and well-rounded education, and almost entirely eliminates the possibility of going to college, because school is not a major priority when rent, food and health care are overwhelming expenses that leave these mothers with very little chance of saving, and thereby little chance of financial success.

Schooling is directly proportional to the ability of a person to escape poverty, and when schools are failing due to lack of funding from state taxes, grants and other forms of improving education levels. When this is paired with women being unable to maintain their low-paying jobs due to the necessity of child care to do so, the result contributes to keeping families in poverty. Before these children arrive at school, they are already disadvantaged because chances are good that they have received very little preschool care that worked to develop their education. Because women cannot afford center care, children are often left with family members, who are not trained teachers or caregivers, or with a group of children that are a variety of ages. There is almost no school preparation in these settings, and when it occurs, it is rare and often not very structured.

In the video titled "Profile of Another America," health care evidences itself as a major expense and issue for working people in poverty because, in many cases, there are no affordable benefits, insurance or overall help to keep these people healthy without severely denting their already minimal paychecks. In contrast from those interviewed for the piece who did not belong to unions, the woman who did belong to a union received benefits, reasonable wages and was able to maintain a livable lifestyle, seemingly without much issue. She did not have to make sacrifices, for instance choosing whether to eat dinner or buy a prescription, as others making low wages were forced to do. The tug between needing to feed oneself and one’s family, versus the need to stay healthy, versus the need to hold down any job that pays enough to make ends meet all comes back to what kind of a job one has, and contributing to that is how educated that person is. People's jobs, and thereby their education level, literally shape how they live.