Gendered realities of poverty: Men and women's views of poverty in Jerusalem

This study uses grounded theory to provide a bottom-up analysis of poor people's perceptions of their own poverty, focusing on gender differences across different cultural-religious groups. Data come from interviews with low-income Jewish men and women of diverse backgrounds in Jerusalem. This study confirms that gender stereotypes play significant roles in structuring the poor's perceptions of their own poverty. Yet, the poor's perceptions of their poverty vary from the dominant discourses on poverty, thereby underscoring the importance of giving voice to the poor in the policy process as a way of challenging established understandings of poverty.