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Introduction: Poverty reduction is one of the most important economic and social goals of politicians and programmers in different societies. Women are more exposed to  poverty and gender discrimination in comparison with men. This is because  women do not have necessary capabilities and facilities for empowerment and poverty reduction. Hence, for anti-poverty programs in the country, policymakers need, in the first step, to measure poverty  especially  in female-headed households.
In this study, after measuring the multidimensional poverty index in male and female headed households, it is attempted to analyze the poverty status of female headed household and to determine the factors affecting their poverty.
Method: In this study, the multidimensional poverty index is calculated for men and women-headed households based on Alkire and Foster method in three dimensions education, health and standard of living with an equal weighting system. In this study, household’s income expenditure raw data published by the Statistical Center of Iran in 2015 were used. Furthermore, the factors that affect poor female- headed households was estimated using a logit regression model.
Findings: The results showed that intensity and incidence of poverty among female-headed households is higher than men-headed households in both urban and rural areas. There is significant differences between female-headed households’ MPI in urban areas by 0.0942 and male-headed households’ MPI by 0.0516. Also, female-headed households’ MPI is equal to 0.067 and men-headed households’ MPI is equal to 0.0364 in rural areas. The highest female-headed households’ deprivation is respectively in sanitation, years of schooling and health insurance in urban areas and the highest deprivation in rural areas is respectively in sanitation, years of education and building structures. Logit regression model also showed that being older, unemployed, a housewife, and married female-heads of households increase the probability of being poor
Discussion: Based on the findings, the multidimensional poverty of female-headed households is more than the multidimensional poverty of male-headed households in both urban and rural areas  indicating that female households need more attention in poverty reduction programs. Measuring the multidimensional poverty index by indicators also highlights priority sectors in poverty reduction programs. The Logit regression model also showed that years of schooling is very important because the empowerment of female- headed households in education empowers them to find a job and earn money.

 

Keywords: Alkire and Foster method, Female-headed household, Female poverty, Multidimensional poverty

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