Scientist or realist?

In really beginning to get into this blog on human rights and the feminization of poverty, I've resolved to take a look at what's already out there in the blogosphere, to see who's already discussing the issues. I'd like to learn what are the most frequent modes of doing so and get a feel for what the 'hot topics' or the buzz words of the day are. In stumbling around the blogosphere I came upon the following blog, which discusses, as part of a larger look at human rights, the feminization of poverty:

http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/measuring-poverty-5-the-mystery-of-the-feminization-of-poverty/

When perusing a blog I've noticed that more often than not a certain line, word or phrase jumps out at me. This may be because they contain a new idea, an old idea with a new twist, or an idea that I don't agree with and wish was an old idea. A line that caught my attention when skimming this post was, "...rights violation that it is called 'poverty.'" I had never really thought of being in a state of poverty as a rights violation in and of itself. I had thought that it was the factors that kept one in poverty which are unjust, that gaining access, or in some cases the right, to certain resources would help one get out of poverty. The idea that poverty itself is a human rights violation is an interesting assertion that seems to suggest poverty represents the accumulation of factors to produce/maintain a state of poverty. The underlying question seems to get back to basics, making me re-think about my ideological orientation to poverty, what again is the poverty theory I most identify with?

Although this conceptualization of poverty as a human rights violation was new to me, the idea is really not. I believe that in a just world all people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, creed, and other dividing factors would all at least have their basic needs met. This is of course easier said than done. Even identifying what are a human's "basic needs" is challenging as people of different backgrounds and origins would likely differ greatly in their response.

Another bit of this post that caught my attention was the following:

"One example of this is the often quoted but baseless claim that 70% of the world’s poor are women. This is a number that seems to have come from nowhere yet it has taken on a life of its own."

I was somewhat surprised to see this in the blog as I had assumed the writer was a proponent of the theory of the feminization of poverty, a theory widely accepted in my profession, classes, by faculty, other students. I was intrigued when realizing the blogger was questioning some of the most basic buzz statistics regarding the issue, but even more surprised to find myself second guessing what I thought I knew. In both this as well as a larger sense, what comes of this sort of questioning? Doubting of things you thought you knew? Who can you trust? Where do you get your information? When do you know to stop asking questions? The scientist would likely say never, but what would the realist, exhausted and brow beaten by tireless of research and inquiry, say?