Abstract：Are women more vulnerable to poverty? We use China Health and Nutrition Survey( CHNS) data to subdivide the femaleheaded households into de jure and de facto female-headed households and analyse the relationships between assets， risk， vulnerability and different types of households． It is found that， compared with the male-headed households， the female-head households have relatively fewer assets． They are more vulnerable to risks such as health risks． And in the long run，women choose to increase the risk of poverty， such as less medical spending in the face of risk attacks． The empirical results also reveal that de jure female-headed households are more vulnerable than de facto female-headed households． We believe that the poverty vulnerability of female-headed households should be given priority． Based on gender differences especially women and female-headed households as targets in poverty reduction policy is of great significance for targeted poverty alleviation and the elimination of gender inequality．
