Older homeless women’s identity negotiation: agency, resistance, and the construction of a valued self

Abstract

There is a growing awareness that the adult homeless population is ageing, mirroring the general US population trend. Although men still outnumber women among the adult homeless population, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women, including older women, seeking shelter each night. The concept of 'home' is widely associated with women and serves as a source of identity and social order. Thus, homeless older women represent an intersection of stigma. This qualitative study utilized narrative analysis to investigate the intersectionality of gender, age and homelessness among six homeless urban women in their fifties and early sixties. Findings highlight how older homeless women experience stigmatization within the context of multiple marginalized identities. Data illustrate the women's agency, resistance and resilience as they engage in 'identity work' to address the tension between how others view them and how they view themselves, and construct a sense of a valued life and self.

Agency in advanced liberal services: grounding sociological knowledge in homeless people's accounts

“…Our findings have important implications for the sociological literature on homelessness, agency and neoliberalism, and for service providers looking to deliver services in a way that enables, rather than undermines, people's agency. First, our findings about people's engagement in ‘relational reasoning’ (Clarke et al ) add to recent sociological contributions that associate agency with accounts that challenge neoliberal discourses (e.g., Farrugia et al ; Gonyea and Melekis ; Shildrick and MacDonald ; Woolford and Nelund ). People actively related their accounts of the Gain Model to problems, goals and relationships that were meaningful to them.…”

“…Wardhaugh (: 106) demonstrated how women distance themselves from the category of ‘homeless woman’ because their lives outside ‘the social and spatial boundaries of home, family and domesticity threatens to undermine the construction of the home as a source of identity and as a foundation of social order’. Gonyea and Melekis (: 76) show how older homeless women resist intersecting stigmatized identities by asserting positive conceptions of themselves as nurturing ‘mothers, adult daughters, sisters, friends and, in some cases, paid caregivers’. Similarly, Gowan's () work with people who are homeless illustrates that scavenging is not a survival strategy nor principally a means to make money; people recycled glass and metal to assert – and have socially validated – their sense of selves beyond homelessness and dependence (Gowan ).…”

“…The women's practice of presenting themselves as carers/nurturers is acknowledged as agentic; however, the same women's attempt to distance themselves from their homeless peers is interpreted as social conditioning:

What is especially striking is that, the women often adopted (and internalized) society's extant framing of the cause of older women's homelessness as being largely about irresponsibility, incompetence, substance abuse and mental illness. (Gonyea and Melekis : 74)

…”

“…What is especially striking is that, the women often adopted (and internalized) society's extant framing of the cause of older women's homelessness as being largely about irresponsibility, incompetence, substance abuse and mental illness. (Gonyea and Melekis : 74)…”

Hope

“…

A growing number of aging homeless women are looking for shelter and struggling to construct a sense of valued life and self (Gonyea and Melekis, 2016). The design process for the "Hope" garment engages underprivileged women in a co-creative design experience.

…”