This essay presents a brief review of the trajectory of the studies on women heads of the family and it accomplishes a critical reflection about the direct relationship established between the growth of the phenomenon of the feminine leadership of the family and the polemic debate about the so-called feminization of poverty. It intends to point to the need of questioning an artificial homogeneity built around women heading their domestic-family nuclei, presented by most of the studies, and that insists on reinforcing an uniform profile of those women seen, predominantly, as the poorest among the poor and it signals, finally, to the open possibilities of gender studies, particularly of those that join a feminist and relational epistemology, for a new look on that polissemic and multifaceted object.
women heads of family; feminization of the poverty; gender relationships