Factors Behind the Rise in Female Headship

The rise in the number of female-headed households has been brought about by several socio-demographic and economic factors.
In many Latin American countries (e.g. Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru), migration flows from rural to urban areas in the last decades have been female-dominated, as young women are pushed by lack of job opportunities in rural areas and are drawn into the cities by better prospects.
This has resulted in a demographic imbalance between sexes in urban areas and a surplus of women, especially in the younger marriageable ages and older age groups.

Read this short article about one of the demographically most imbalanced places in the whole of Brazil:

This trend has been accompanied by increasing frequency of unpartnered adolescent parenthood. The erosion of extended family systems coupled with biological fathers' unwillingness to recognize their children have left unpartnered women to fend for themselves and their children.

Premature parenthood among single women is also an increasingly frequent phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa.

• early sexual experience and
• early childbearing, as well as
• low educational attainment and
• remaining unmarried,

are key links in the intergenerational transmission of poverty between mothers and their children.

To a large extent, impoverishment is almost always at the root of the rise in female-headed households.
Heavy male migration to cities and towns, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, leaves women for long periods of time to manage and support the family alone, although there may be irregular income from the husband. Many women with children are being divorced and abandoned by men who can no longer contribute to their support.

Ethnic clashes and armed conflicts within States, most of which are developing countries, have been increasing in recent years, displacing people en masse, disintegrating families, and leaving women alone or widowed to fend for their families.

Most refugee households are headed by women.

Conflicts and violence are largely related to deprivation, poverty and restricted access to economic and political opportunities. Most of the countries suffering from internal strife are among those with high levels of poverty: Afghanistan, Angola, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan.