An attempt has been made to compare the poverty indices between female-and male-headed households and try to identify the determinants of welfare and poverty in both households. We have employed OLS, probit and tobit models using the1995/96 HICES data. The descriptive analysis of poverty indices indicated that there is no clear trend that female-headed households are poorer than male-headed households. However, the regression result indicated female-headship has a positive influence on the welfare of the household. This study identifies other characteristics, which are generally believed to be determining poverty and welfare. The educational attainment of the household head (in particular high school and above) is found to be the most important factor that associated with poverty in all models. Similarly, the number of children in the household has a significant negative influence on the welfare of the poor and non-poor households and has positive influence on poverty gap and severity of poverty. Policies designed to see the welfare difference between female-and maleheaded households have to use definition of headship that reflect primary economic support; surveys also need to design to give this information. Thus, the issue of female-headship as proxy for targeting program of poverty alleviation is not recommended in this paper.