Gender Differences in Multidimensional Poverty in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

ABSTRACT Despite the growing demand for gender‐disaggregated statistics on poverty, there is hardly any cross‐country evidence of gender disparities in poverty. The paper contributes to filling this gap, by using two novel individual‐level indices of multidimensional poverty. Relying on data from 78 low‐ and middle‐income countries, it finds that almost everywhere female poverty exceeds male poverty. In the median country, female poverty is 58%–85% higher than male poverty. The highest gender disparities in poverty were detected in the MENA, Latin America and South Asia regions. Finally, the majority of countries experienced an increase in the female/male poverty ratio, thus a feminization of poverty.