The region's fertility patterns, characterized by high rates of adolescent pregnancy and large fertility differentials by educational level, further complicate this situation of high childhood poverty relative to the average and raise questions about the possibility of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty reproduction. However, although these gender-based differences are evident, the income poverty measure is not a good indicator of the gap between men and women because it is based on the assumption that total household income is distributed equally among household members. A more telling indicator is the percentage of women without income of their own in the region.