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In the United States, public policies designed to reduce poverty are overwhelmingly influenced by human capital theory, since education is viewed as the powerful mechanism by which productivity will increase, incomes will be raised, and economic opportunity will be provided. Although African-American women followed the prescription set forth by human capital theory and increased their educational attainment by over 2 years from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, their incidence of poverty remained fairly stable. First published in 1998, this study examines why educational investments by that population most susceptible to being poor, African- American females, have not reduced poverty as expected.

African-American Women and Poverty