Editing Edwardian era (section)

====Poverty among working-class women====
[[File:BCLM-Mary Macarthur 7b.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Mary Macarthur]] addressing the crowds during the chain makers' strike, [[Cradley Heath]], 1910]]
The [[Poor Law Amendment Act 1834]] defined who could receive monetary relief. The Act reflected and perpetuated prevailing gender conditions. In Edwardian society, men were the source of wealth. The law restricted relief for unemployed, able-bodied male workers, due to the prevailing view that they would find work in the absence of financial assistance. However, women were treated differently. After the Poor Law was passed, women and children received most of the aid.<ref name=thane/>

The law did not recognise single independent women, and put women and children into the same category. If a man was physically disabled, his wife was also treated as disabled under the [[coverture]] laws, even though coverture was fast becoming outmoded in the Edwardian era. Unmarried mothers were sent to the workhouse, receiving unfair social treatment such as being restricted from attending church on Sundays.<ref name=thane/>

During marriage disputes, women often lost the rights to their children, even if their husbands were abusive.<ref name=thane>{{cite journal|last=Thane|first=Pat|author-link = Pat Thane| title=Women and the Poor Law in Victorian and Edwardian England|journal=History Workshop| volume=6| issue=6|year=1978 |pages=29–51|doi=10.1093/hwj/6.1.29| jstor=4288190}}</ref> However, women were increasingly granted custody of their children under seven years of age; this tendency was colloquially known as the "tender years doctrine", in which it was believed that a child was best left under maternal care until the age of seven.<ref>{{cite book| author=Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young|title=Legalizing Misandry:From Public Shame To Systemic Discrimination Against Men| year=2006|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|page=126| isbn=9780773528628}}</ref>

At the time, single mothers were the poorest sector in society, disadvantaged for at least four reasons. First, women lived longer, often leaving them widowed with children. Second, women had fewer opportunities to work, and when they did find it, their wages were lower than male workers' wages. Third, women were often less likely to marry or remarry after being widowed, leaving them as the main providers for the remaining family members. Finally, poor women had deficient diets, because their husbands and children received disproportionately large shares of food. Many women were malnourished and had limited access to health care.<ref name=thane/>