Nine women opted not to respond to Question 26, where they were asked to imagine their financial circumstances from the perspective of a person who didn't know them well - comments made to researchers were along the lines that they 'neither knew, nor cared' what people they didn't know might think.  Nevertheless, the exercise itself proved useful and may well have implications in terms of estimating just who is poor, as opposed to who seems to be.

7.3 Women have their say: On financial circumstances

Woman, aged 51-60:
"As a freelance worker, without [my] partner's work [income] away from home I would not be able to live here"

Mother of two:
"Because of huge medical bills this month, [I'm just about managing]"

Married woman, aged 41-50:
"Since the euro conversion, money doesn't go far"

Mother, aged 41-50:
"With teenaged girls living at home [there] are extra expenses"

Separated mother:
"Brand names [are] a luxury for Christmas and birthdays"

7.4 Perceived Income Balance

While the research was still in the planning stages, the issue of how best to approach asking for specific details of income was a matter of much debate.  It was felt that attempting to ascertain the exact level of household income might prove problematic; some women might not know exactly how much money was involved, so an alternative approach was suggested.  Aside from this point alone, according to Gordon et al (2000), data from income and employment are insufficient substitutes for measuring poverty and that income below an arbitrary percentage 'does not relate to the needs of individuals, or to any agreed definition of what it is to be poor' (p.8-9).

The concept of relative poverty is one that has also been adopted by the Irish Government through the National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS, 1997), where people are living in poverty 'if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living, which is regarded as acceptable by Irish society generally'.  Such an approach 'broadens the focus from a purely monetary-based definition' and underlines the 'comparative element' in poverty assessment (National Women's Council of Ireland, 2000b).  Investigating the gender dimension of poverty, as the NWCI advocates, was felt by IWIN to require a more creative approach than even relative poverty definitions allow; this is another good reason why the current research adopts a more subjective approach

In Question 28, participants were asked to estimate how much they believed to be necessary per week to run a household such as theirs - a chart ranging from €61-€80 through to €361-€380 and then to 'more than this' was provided.  Following on from this selection, Question 29 asked the participants to use the same chart to estimate their  actual household income.  While not entirely scientific in its approach, this subjective measure was felt to be a worthwhile substitute - it also fitted in with the general ethos of allowing the participants to be their own experts.