The rapid impoverishment of women and their children has serious implications for the American family and for the nation. This report includes testimony before the Illinois Commission on the Status of Women from national and state representatives of women's organizations, social services agencies, advocacy groups, and civil rights organizations. A summary of the results of these groups' research includes statistics describing the trend toward the feminization of poverty, a discussion of the causes of women's poverty (which are fundamentally different from those associated with men's poverty), and a description of the effects of this poverty in terms of the physical and psychological health of both women and children. Next presented are recommendations of the commission for reducing the number of women who descend into poverty and strategies to implement these recommendations. Specifically, recommendations concern increasing the availability of adequate and affordable child care, enforcing child support orders, including education aimed at self-sufficiency in programs that assist women, increasing primary sector employment and training for women, ensuring equal access to society's benefits, and improving public assistance programs. Lengthy appendices include all oral and written testimony. (CB)