Women Living with Homelessness: They Are (Almost) Invisible

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on women's homelessness, which remains mostly hidden. The stories of three women of different ages will illustrate how they entered and experienced homelessness and its impacts on their 'health,' defined here as 'a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity'. Michel Foucault's (1980, 1982) ideas on power are drawn on to examine societal practices at play. Richard Kearney's (2003) thoughts on the meaning of 'otherness' represent an alternative view on relationships with those who are different from us: We should be welcoming and embracing 'strangers' instead of denying they exist or vilifying and scapegoating those who are marginalized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)