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History
editWomen have featured in records of housing insecurity in the U.S. since the first colonial movements when unhoused individuals were called vagabonds. The history of homeless women in the U.S. tracks the broader history of homelessness in this country. The Great Depression in the 1930s resulted in a spike in unhoused individuals, and the large numbers of impacted individuals resulted in recognition for the difficulty these people faced. The modern origins of homelessness date back to the 1960s, when rising interest rates and societal factors like the HIV/AIDS epidemic served as contributors. After President John F. Kennedy signed the community mental health act in 1962 the process of deinstitutionalization began, at which point there was an increase in the unhoused population[1].
Homelessness specifically among women and families has been marginalized and neglected by the public and the government. Most homelessness experienced by women is “hidden” in that women are not explicitly visible on the streets. Instead, a woman being homeless may manifest as residential instability, sex work, and/or insecure housing – conditions that are usually not visible to the remaining public[2].
The Women’s Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s sought equality for women in regards to gender roles and career opportunities[3]. The rise of conversations around unequal pay and job access led to the realization that women were prevented from acquiring independence by current social norms and structures. Gender roles constrained women from exhibiting defiance to their male counterparts, making it so that women in relationships were reliant on their husbands to survive[3]. This served as more than enough motivation to remain subservient rather than challenging abusive conditions they may be facing. The Women's Rights movement ventured to alter this existing standard. Where homeless shelters were unable to address the intersection of issues for women, primarily focusing on financial instability, domestic violence shelters emerged to address this lack[3].
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If you're starting a new article, you can develop it here until it's ready to go live. If you're working on improvements to an existing article, copy only one section at a time of the article to this sandbox to work on, and be sure to use an edit summary linking to the article you copied from. Do not copy over the entire article. You can find additional instructions here. Remember to save your work regularly using the "Publish page" button. (It just means 'save'; it will still be in the sandbox.) You can add bold formatting to your additions to differentiate them from existing content. |
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edit- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Trawver 2019 3–392was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Oudshoorn 34–502was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c Oudshoorn, Abe; Berkum, Amy Van; Loon, Colleen Van (2018). "A History of Women's Homelessness: The Making of a Crisis" (PDF). Journal of Social Inclusion.