An intersectional analysis of the feminization of homelessness and mothers’ housing precarity

Abstract

AbstractA network of interlocking systems of racialized, classed, and gendered oppression contributes to the “feminization of homelessness.” Unequal and low pay, unpaid caregiving, lack of affordable housing, discrimination, a weak safety net, punitive welfare and public housing policies, and intimate partner violence (IPV) are among the many factors that contribute to women's homelessness. Despite their intersections, these factors are often considered in isolation. Arguing for movement away from single‐axis conceptualizations of women's homelessness, we offer an intersectional analysis of mothers’ pathways into homelessness that foregrounds structural inequalities, highlights relational power dynamics, and reveals multilevel intersections of identity and experience. Drawing on two complementary interview studies, we explore two interrelated pathways into homelessness: (1) IPV as a gendered, racialized, and classed experience that contributes to economic and housing precarity; and (2) intersections of weak and restrictive safety net programs with raced, classed, and gendered “discipline.” We trace how privilege and disadvantage cumulate across women's lives and how institutional and relational power intersect with common “shocks” (e.g., eviction, loss of employment). We attend closely to the racialized and gendered dynamics of economic abuse; how gender, race, class, and motherhood shape pathways into homelessness; and how these intersections inform institutional responses to economic and housing precarity.