Poverty is one of the major problems in Poland. According to the statutory border of poverty, there are about 7,3% people who are poor (Poverty in Poland 2010). It is not surprising then that many researchers are preoccupied with this problem. Today, a lot of quantitative research is conducted by institutions like OBOP and GUS (J. Bielec 2007;. Baczewski 2008; Deniszczuk 2007). Also, qualitative studies are carried out (Tarkowska, 2000; Warzywoda-Kruszyńska 2001; Golczyńska-Grondas 2004; Nalaskowski -2007; Zabielska 2007).
I intend to join a group of researchers investigating the problem of poverty through qualitative approaches in order to discover how poverty affects women and how they deal with it. It is interesting that the studies on poverty view the entire household as the unit of analysis. Feminist-oriented researchers discovered that the distribution of wealth in the family is not equal and investigating poverty should focus on individuals rather than entire households (see Daly 1989). So, in my project I would like to focus on private, personal experiences of women experiencing poverty rather than on entire households.