"Like a Prison!": Homeless Women's Narratives of Surviving Shelter

Authors

Sarah L. DeWard, New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Angela M. Moe, Western Michigan University

Keywords

Homelessness, shelter, institutionalization, women, gender, poverty

Abstract

Relying on field observation and twenty qualitative interviews with shelter residents, this article examines how the bureaucracy and institutionalization within a homeless shelter fits various tenets of Goffman's (1961) "total institution," particularly with regard to systematic deterioration of personhood and loss of autonomy. Women's experiences as shelter residents are then explored via a typology of survival strategies: submission, adaptation, and resistance. This research contributes to existing literature on gendered poverty by analyzing the nuanced ways in which institutionalization affects and complicates women's efforts to survive homelessness.

Recommended Citation

DeWard, Sarah L. and Moe, Angela M. (2010) ""Like a Prison!": Homeless Women's Narratives of Surviving Shelter," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 37: Iss. 1, Article 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.3496
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol37/iss1/7