The number one goal of the United Nations on the millennium development agenda is the eradication of extreme
poverty and hunger. But poverty, as other problems, reveals more when examined from a multi-dimensional and
dynamic perspective, and gender-sensitive lenses can make a major contribution. The “feminisation of poverty”
(ranging from a higher incidence of women among the poor to poverty in terms of a lack of or limited choices)
has been documented by research throughout the world as a result of the interaction of three main factors:
WKHLQWURGXFWLRQRIJHQGHUHOHPHQWVLQWKHUHVHDUFKDQGOLWHUDWXUHRQSRYHUW\WKHKLJKLQFLGHQFHRIVSHFL¿F
groups of women under the poverty line; and the mismatch between women’s life cycles and policies in place.
This paper provides additional evidence on the “feminisation of poverty” by looking at the case of Albania as
representative of an under-researched category of countries emerging as new democracies in the 1990s. The
argument put forward is that the intersectionality of gender and age results in a larger burden of poverty among
ROGHUZRPHQ7RVXSSRUWWKHDUJXPHQWWKHSDSHUJRHVEH\RQGWKHOLPLWHGRI¿FLDOSRYHUW\VWDWLVWLFVLQ$OEDQLD
by looking at the economic activity of women and men, analysing the work-family reconciliation policy framework
in Albania, and providing evidence of the work-family tension based on secondary data analysis. It is
found that combining work and family life in the pre-retirement period in Albania presents more disadvantages
for women than for men, leading to the “feminisation of poverty” in the post-retirement stages in life. This is
WKHQIXHOOLQJDQHZWUHQGIRUXQHPSOR\HGZRPHQDQGUHWLUHGZRPHQWRZRUNDVLQIRUPDOFDUHJLYHUV¿OOLQJ
WKHGH¿FLHQF\LQFDUHIRUWKHHOGHVWDQG\RXQJHVWSHRSOHLQWKHLURZQIDPLOLHVRULQWKHIDPLOLHVRIZHDOWKLHU
women. The policy logic and respective provisions in Albania, at best, are not discouraging the phenomenon.
Keywords: feminisation of poverty, older women, work-life policies, A