The struggle against poverty of women: The role of social assistance institutions

Poverty, one of the most important socioeconomic problem of the world, is defined as that people couldn't meet their basic needs with their current income in the simplest terms. Poverty as old as the history of humankind, influences each part of the community in different ways. However, literature have demonstrated that women and their children are the most affected ones. The reason beyond this result is to be subject women to various types of discrimination. Women struggle with poverty mostly because of the inequality in educational opportunities, unemployment and some concerns about payments, social insurance, labor conditions etc., even if they are employed. Accordingly, this study is aimed to determine the aspects and severity of the women poverty, and the fight that women put up against poverty. In addition we intended to establish the role of social assistance organizations in this struggle, and to obtain the point of view and opinions of women related with these organizations and how much effective these organizations are for reducing severity of their poverty. In order to realize this objectives, we conducted a questionnaire to 200 poor women participants in Erzurum.