Abstract
Women are disadvantaged in both the formal and informal economy in Africa which exacerbates their vulnerability to poverty. It is widely acknowledged that women earn lower wages than men due to gender discrimination in the labor market. Facing precarious employment and gendered wage inequality, single-mother households face persistent vulnerability to poverty even when they are working. A qualitative descriptive design was used to describe the relationship between gender relations, work in the informal economy, and the poverty experiences of 16 female-headed families by tracing the strategies which single mothers adopt to break the cycle of poverty in South Africa. Data was collected using individual, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, conducted for 60–90 minutes each. Using African feminism, the biographic profiles of the women are presented and three key themes which distilled from the analysis is discussed: surviving on limited resources, parenting challenges, and strengths of women in poverty. Taking into account the profound impact of unequal power relations in the labor market, the chapter concludes with some suggestions for practitioners to put in place programs and advocacy interventions to facilitate legislative changes as a way forward to harness the valuable contributions made by single mothers in the informal economy.