(no subject)

[pantryslut]

Gender Biases of Language I Would Like To See Eliminated, A Continuing Series:

"Female-headed household." Because what they really mean is "single-parent household."*

ETA: manomano points out in the comments that one sociological definition of "female-headed household" is a household where a female adult makes more money than a male adult. This is probably actually the definition used in the article that set me off. It's still problematic, but worth noting nevertheless. See the comments for more detail.

* In theory, all-women households with more than one adult could count under the term "female-headed household," even given patriarchal assumptions, but that's never what they actually mean either.

Comments

[brooksmoses]

Pardon me while I recollect the bits of my brain that went pop.

I mean, WTF? People actually do that? And expect to be understood?

(As to your footnote: In theory, why couldn't any household with an adult woman in it count under the term "female-headed household"? Not just the all-women ones?)

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

(As to your footnote: In theory, why couldn't any household with an adult woman in it count under the term "female-headed household"? Not just the all-women ones?)

Bingo!

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I have edited the footnote slightly to make my meaning clearer.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Oh, and to answer your first question: alas, yes. I was reading Science News of all things when this particular gasket popped. They were reporting on a sociological study that had, as a marker of a disadvantaged neighborhood, one with a large percentage of "female-headed households." Grr.

[brooksmoses]

Good grief, indeed.

(And, yes, now I see what you were going for what that footnote.)

[manomano.livejournal.com]

The definition that government social service funders used to use (back when I was in that biz) was a household where a female adult makes more money than a male adult, and it was highly correlated with poverty. Presumably what it meant was not that the women were making more, but that the men were making less. I don't know if that's the definition used in the study you read.

No, I'm not defending it, it's probably one of the those correlations that exist because you look for them, not because there's any benefit to using it. Income of the household seems like a better approach.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Ah, I didn't know that about the definition. That's better, but...weird. This probably is the definition they were using. I agree, total household income probably would be a better yardstick.

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't that be "single-mother household"?

Because, even though they're not a huge percentage, single-father households do exist, and are on the rise (according to this).

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I chose single-parent on purpose, b/c I think that the disadvantage that they're trying to tag is best exemplified by that term. Although see above about the other definition of the term is also noted; I didn't know that! It's probably the definition they were using.

[ms-anthropy.livejournal.com]

Once again "female" has to be specified, since "male" is the default. Grf.

Interesting. Not that they would, but if it said "male-headed household" the assumption would probably be that they were conservative/religious, not single-parent.

Because you see if there's a man in the picture he's the head of household, so if they specify "female," she's obviously on her own.

Did I ever tell you guys that according to our marriage license I'm the husband? When we went to sign the papers we were extremely amused by the archaic language of the crap we were signing, which read like it hadn't been changed since the days of "when you beat your wife you're only allowed to use a stick -this- thick." So just to be pissy we signed on the wrong lines. Not only am I the husband, but R.'s family owes me $2000 or a cow, because the boy was definitely used merchandise.

You probably think I'm kidding about the cow. I swear to god, it said "cow."