Trends in CalWORKs: Participant Characteristics

Jun 16, 2025 - Gender of Head of Household Disproportionate Share of CalWORKs Families Had Female Heads of Household. As shown in Figure   14 , almost 90   percent of CalWORKs heads of household were women in 2022.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5057

Comparing CalWORKs Take-Up Rates Across Demographic Groups

Feb 14, 2023 - Notably, however, families headed by a single mother are much more likely to be CalWORKs ‑eligible than those headed by a single father despite these families having similar poverty rates. In reviewing the data, this appears to be because families headed by single mothers are about twice as likely to report zero outside income as those headed by single fathers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4678