Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

Abstract

Though much scholarly attention has been paid to the emergence of female-headed households in Latin America, there is debate over where to place these households within discussions of poverty and resource deprivation. Two issues complicate this debate: first, the lack of multi-resource models in quantitative analyses to fully assess types of resource accumulation, and second, the broad failure for analyses of female-headed households to differentiate between different kinds of female-heads of household. This research note employs the operationalization and regression analysis of four different types of resource capital to evaluate relative levels across age-differentiated female-heads of households. Specifically, resource holdings of female-heads ages 18–44, 45–59, and 60 and older are compared across five measures of monetary, physical (two measures), social, and human capital. Findings indicate areas of deprivation, but no consistent lack of resources in one age group. Using theoretical and methodological foundations derived from the independent scholarship of González de la Rocha, Moser, and Rakodi, the analysis and results of resource capital in this study are discussed through a lens of equal vulnerability, rather than a lens of equally effective survival strategies.