Data shown in this paper come from a 2011 survey in which 1000 participants have been interviewed by using a semi-structured questionnaire. The main topic is Poverty and some of its meanings for women regarding the economic disadvantages, integration and social exclusion, with special reference to the family and the labour market. From this point of view, the concept of female dependency represents a strategic concept that may be broken down into the dimensions of economic (income source) and material (non-economic external help in the management of the household) dependency. It will be shown how gender has a statistically significant weight in the distribution of a greater or lesser degree of dependency. With this aim, Economic and Material dimensions have been operationalized by building two empirical typological indexes, which summarize a set of semantically relevant indicators. Moreover, the analysis takes into account specific categories of women, allowing the authors to conclude the paper by drawing out women' profiles focusing on subjects that are potentially vulnerable to poverty (elderly women, women with precarious jobs and divorcees) more than others.
