Las mujeres sin hogar: realidades ocultas de la exclusión residencial

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide knowledge on the residential exclusion of homeless women. Social exclusion is produced from processes or life trajectories in which people gradually disengage from the social institutions that guarantee integration into our society. In the case of women, these processes are linked to social inequalities of gender and take place invisibly along their life trajectories. To understand them, it is necessary to identify the triggering and protective factors that affect female residential exclusion and reflect on them in terms of gender. This article deals with this subject, as part of the results derived from a research carried out at the University of Barcelona (2016-2018). The main triggers of female residential exclusion are a greater vulnerability to structural changes in their environment that limit their economic independence and the succession of various forms of violence in their life trajectories. Relevant protective factors are strategies linked to social support networks and social accompaniment carried out by social workers. The article concludes with some proposals from a gender perspective and under a comprehensive and community approach that aims to achieve an inclusive citizenship.