Abstract

People experiencing homelessness have long been categorized into a singular stigmatizing identity of “the homeless.” This is also true for one of the fastest-growing groups among the homeless population, older women lacking stable housing. In this paper, we illustrate how society’s use of a singular “homeless” identity is reductionist and misguided. Drawing on our in-depth, in-person qualitative interviews conducted with older women living on the streets and in shelters in Northeastern US cities, we describe how the multiple marginalized social identities that these women experience based on being “poor,” “aged,” “women,” and often “disabled” are intertwined. We argue that the use of intersectionality lens is critical to both understand how these women resist and challenge these negative identities as well as how they construct a positive sense of self, particularly through their caring or nurturing roles. Through the voices of the interviewed women, we highlight the complex and inter-related issues based on the women’s multiple and fluid social identities, including the gendered nature of their experiences of financial insecurity, stigma, trauma and abuse, struggle to fulfill their caring role, and the interaction of physical and emotional health. We discuss how society’s social construction of the stigmatized “the homeless” identity must be rejected; rather, an intersectional approach offers a better pathway to understanding the multiple structural factors contributing to older women’s risk for homelessness later in life and will better inform the development of effective housing policy and programmatic solutions.

Presenters

Judith Gonyea
Professor, School of Social Work, Boston University, Massachusetts, United States

Kelly Melekis
Associate Professor and Chair of Social Work, Social Work, Skidmore College, New York, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Social and Cultural Perspectives on Aging

KEYWORDS

Homelessness, Older Women, Social Othering, Stigma, Intersectionality, Structural Marginalization

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