As Bane explains, some of the female-headed households, who are in poverty, were already in poverty before the family structure was broken. Zinn uses Bane's idea to contradict the notion that family structure changes causes most of the poverty we facing now. This idea goes to show that, sometimes it is not exclusively the female's fault that her family is in poverty. It is because they were already in poverty while the husband is there and after the husband leaves, they are stuck in poverty. The only way for the female and her family to escape poverty is for the female to work twice as hard and make few sacrifices and changes in order for her family to survive. Zinn also uses Bane's research to show that even if you belong to a two parent household you are not safe from poverty. I believe Zinn is saying that family can be poor no matter the structure of the family. So even though you might be in a two-headed household, it doesn't mean you cannot become poor. After divorce, women in particular have hard times finding a decent job to support her family.
A woman's ability to maintain a decent job to support her and her family financially after divorce is misunderstood. People do not know to the full extent the woman has to suffer after divorce. People think since the woman is getting money because of child custody, she would be well off and on top of receiving money she is working so therefore there should not be any financial problems. Even though all these little things help, they do not help to the point to help a woman out of poverty or fall into poverty. In the book, Women, Work, & Divorce, written by Richard Peterson, Peterson talks about how women are affected in the work force due to divorce. Peterson states, "Not surprisingly, women suffer a drastic drop in their income and standard of living in the first year after their divorce. The decline is especially severe for women who have children, women who were married to upper middle-class men, and long-married women.
