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We examine gender differences in the relative poverty of men and women in eight industrialized countries. The analyses are based on data from the Luxembourg Income Study, which includes data from the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the Netherlands. We examine the importance of the gender-specific demographic compositions of marriage, parenthood, and employment in accounting for differences in men's and women's poverty rates, both within and across countries. The cross-national comparisons suggest that the relative importance of demographic characteristics differs by country and that factors such as religion, culture, and government policies also help determine the gap between women's and men's poverty rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A secondary analysis of 25 national surveys of voting behavior in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States provides support in 21 instances for the thesis that status inconsistency between occupational class and socio-religious group increases liberal or left of center tendencies. Britain appears to be an exception to the pattern, possibly reflecting the relatively homogeneous religious composition of the British population, and a resulting lack of saliency of socio-religious group status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]