Assets Accumlation and Intergenerational Transmission among Female Headed Families

The growth of female headed families is the most significant demographic trend for the past few decades. Such families now constitute 6.5 percent of all families with children in Taiwan. However, what generates concern among policy makers and family researchers is its strong link to "the feminization of poverty." There are negative economic consequence of living in female-headed families, both the short and the long-term. Current antipoverty strategies heavily focus on the development of human capital. While human capital is important, there is growing empirical evidence that assets play a central role in reducing vulnerability to poverty. This paper presents key findings of the study on assets accumulation as well as transmission across generations among female headed families. Fifty female heads, sampled from five different populated areas across country, were interviewed in an in-depth way. Thirty-eight of them are from low income families, but the other 12 are not. Two findings are indicated in the study. First, there is a strong similarity in educational attainment between female heads and their parents. However, few female heads with low educational level are able to get away from poverty based on the accumulation of tangible assets from the previous marriage. Second, female heads in the study reported that they received social support from kinship network, but not tangible assets transmission. A focus on enhancing the educational attainment, and thereby the income generating capacity, of women who are single parents should balance with strategies to facilitate asset accumulation among the group of women. Implications for social welfare policy and social work practice are discussed.