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introduction: Women comprise half the population of our country, but only 15.5% of the employed labor force in the economy belongs to them. In spite of the absence of the majority of women in the labor market, statistics show that the unemployment rate of women is about twice as much as that of men. It is predicted that women’s tendency for participation in economic activities will increase through enhancing their academic education and cultural changes and they will increase inequality between men and women. Hence, some of the authors have spoken of “the feminization of poverty”. According to Household Budget Survey by Statistical Center of Iran, female-headed households form only 12% of the poor people of the country and the poverty rate among them is the same as the one among male-headed households. Therefore, high rate of poverty among female-headed households is not acknowledged by statistics. However, the focus of this study is to show that due to gender inequalities the probability of poverty among female-headed households is higher than that of male-headed households.
Method: In the present study, data from the Household Budget Survey of Statistical Center of Iran in 1393 and logit and probit models have been used to find the main factors of poverty among female-headed households. In general, according to the used data set, two types of the models are estimated: (1) the models on total households (2) the models on female-headed households. With regard to the first model, gender variable is used as an explanatory variable, but in the second types of models, there isn’t such variable as an explanatory variable, because all heads of households have the same sex (they are women). The first models show the net effect of gender on poverty probability, regardless of age, education and marital status. In other words, the coefficient of the gender of the household head represents net social discriminations that according to the sign of this coefficient, these discriminations are against men or women. The second type of models estimates the probability of poverty of a female-headed household with respect to age, education, working status and marital status. It is possible that a society does not discriminate between men and women, but female-headed households cannot provide a standard living for themselves due to the low ability. The second type of models identifies the most important characteristics of female-headed households that lead into their poverty.
Findings: Results show that the following variables have a significant effect on an increase in the probability of poverty in female-headed households: residency in the Sunni provinces, the head of the household being 30 to 40 or 50 to 60 years old, the large number of teenagers (9-19 years old) in the family and the number of rooms and area available for female-headed households. The variables which also have a significant impact on the reduction in the probability of poverty among female-headed households include: the low number of family members, being a housekeeper, being employed and being paid without having to work, the large number of family members who are studying and have a job, being the owner or a tenant, holding funeral services and having a surgery over the past year.
Discussion: Widows who are housewives, between 30 and 40, or 50 and 60 years old, are more subject to poverty, and this can be caused by the absence of social support (including society or government). In comparison, female-headed households who are housewives, have had more social support. The more social support the families had in the Statistical Center of Iran, the more evidence we could gather on this subject. It turns out that with regard to the large economic gaps between women and men and the higher probability of poverty among women, the same rates of poverty between men and women is due to social supports.

Keywords: Determinants of poverty, Female-headed households, Feminization of poverty, Poverty, Probability of poverty

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