In isolating poverty as the source of increased obesity in women, the
intersections of this data begs reiteration to identify at least one probable source
of heightened obesity in women with limited economic resources. In the unifactor
setting, women are more likely than men to be obese; women of color are
more likely to be obese than Caucasian women; poor women are more likely to
be obese than wealthy women. When these factors are combined, the disparities
in the data begin to align. Women of color are more than twice as likely as
Caucasian women to live at or below the poverty level.[59] What is more, women
in poverty are generally more likely to partake in the social welfare programs
discussed infra. Specifically, food stamps are provided to 4.5 million more
women than men, and 21 million women as opposed to 16 million men are
eligible to partake in the food stamps program.[60] Similarly, women are more
likely to participate in TANF, and TANF participants are twice as likely to
participate in the food stamps program.[61] As such, what seems to unify obese
women in America into a single group is poverty, and one consequence of that
poverty is a shared experience in the American social welfare system. Building
from this empirical analysis, then, the question becomes: is America’s social
welfare infrastructures making women obese? The answer is yes.
