Female-Headed Households and Urban Poverty in Pakistan (Manpower AND HUMAN CAPITAL Activities) (Report‪)‬

There is growing evidence not only of a substantial increase in woman-headed households all over the world but also of the severely disadvantaged economic condition of these households. These women are amongst the poorest of the Poor--belonging to what may be termed a "Fifth World". In the urban areas, they are concentrated in the informal sector which serves as a catchment area and source of identification of such household heads. A household may be designated as women-headed, defacto or dejure, or both, if the male spouse is absent (widows, divorcees, abandoned women); or is present but contributes marginally to the economic maintenance of the household either due to irregularity and uncertainty of his income (in turn due to old age, sickness or nature of job) or lack of women's control over such income or gender specific differences in disposition of income.