ARE MARRIED-WOMEN MORE DEPRIVED THAN THEIR HUSBANDS

Conventional methods of analysis of poverty assume resources are share d so that each individual in a household/family has the same standard of living. This article measures differences between spouses in a larg e sample in indicators of deprivation of the type used in recent studi es of poverty at household level, The quite limited overall imbalance in measured deprivation in favour of husbands suggests that applying s uch indicators to individuals will not reveal a substantial reservoir of hidden poverty among wives in non-poor households, nor much greater deprivation among women than men in poor households. This points to t he need to develop more sensitive indicators of deprivation designed t o measure individual living standards and poverty status, which can fi t within the framework of traditional poverty research using large sam ples. It also highlights the need for clarification of the underlying poverty concept.