Spaces of Exclusion: Safety, Stigma, and Surveillance of Mothers Experiencing Homelessness

Abstract

Lack of affordable housing, poverty, and intimate partner violence are among the most common reasons for homelessness among mothers and their children in Canada. Mothers experience social exclusion in compounding and debilitating ways. In the literature on social exclusion and health, rarely is safety recognized as a prominent component of social exclusion. The purpose of this critical narrative study was to better understand the unique narratives of social exclusion for mothers experiencing homelessness in Ontario. A critical narrative methodology with an intersectional lens was used. Twenty-six ( N = 26) mothers participated in the study. The overarching finding of unsafe spaces represents the unique forms of exclusion from safety participants experienced in public and private spaces. Emerging out of this overarching category are two intertwined subcategories of (a) exclusion from safety and (b) stigma: public surveillance and discrimination. Participants’ narratives of exclusion from safety signify an ecosystem of unsafe spaces. The findings illuminate and reiterate the imperative for nurses to recognize that safety is a human right and is foundational for health. Nurses can use critical self-reflection and challenge the inherent “nursing gaze” to promote spaces of support rather than surveillance and engage in political advocacy to address structural inequalities, such as gender-based violence.

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Barriers, Facilitators and Unmet Need Among Rural People Who Inject Drugs: A Qualitative Examination of Syringe Service Program Client Perspectives

“…As noted by Walters et al ( 52 ), pervasive social exclusion is likely to play a large role in inequitable access to PrEP. Our findings resonate with recent research that has identified exclusion from safety as a driver of risk in marginalized populations ( 53 ) resulting from overt surveillance and discriminatory practices.…”

Mothering in the context of intimate partner violence: A feminist intersectional critique of the nursing literature

“…This suggests some recognition that mothering is more than a one‐way process from mother to child for the exclusive sake of the child and signals a shift toward a more complex understanding of mothering as more than a practice . This recognition is important given the challenges women mothering in the context of IPV often face in relation to systemic barriers and the long‐term impacts of abuse on multiple aspects of their lives (Benbow et al, 2019; Gilroy et al, 2020; Greaves et al, 2004; Varcoe & Irwin, 2004).…”

“…Much of the existing nursing research has focused on women marginalized by structural conditions such as those living in shelters or second‐stage housing or experiencing homelessness (Benbow et al, 2019; Gilroy et al, 2020; Nixon et al, 2017; Peckover, 2003); seeking other formalized services such as Infant/child nutritional Supplemental programs, or child protective services (Ellis et al, 2008); from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds and living on low incomes/in poverty (Benbow et al, 2019; Gilroy et al, 2020; Nixon et al, 2017); experiencing mental health issues (Benbow et al, 2019; Greaves et al, 2004; Lewin et al, 2010) and using substances (Greaves et al, 2004). The tendency to focus on women marginalized by structural conditions may be driven by an assumption that facing significant chronic stress from intersecting structural barriers may lead to child maltreatment, reflecting an expectation of deficient parenting.…”

“…In the nursing literature, a focus on women marginalized by conditions and intervening in ways that lead primarily to individual rather than also structural change, contributes to a narrow construction of mothers by encouraging a focus on what women do , limiting consideration of the multiple dimensions of women's mothering experiences and factors shaping them. Issues of implicit bias and racism such as victim blaming and shaming, poor interactions with systems or not believing reports of abuse specifically for women of colour for example, were minimally addressed in the literature reviewed (Benbow et al, 2019; Kelly, 2009). Concurrently, harms to children from witnessing violence, accusations of failing to protect children or subsequent removal of children, based on current expectations of practitioners, along with harms to mothers and the nurse‐client relationship have been acknowledged in the literature (Ateah et al, 2016; Hooker, Kaspiew, & Taft, 2016).…”

Stigma, surveillance, and wounded healing: Promoting a critical ethics of care in research with formerly incarcerated Black women

“…Moreover, this surveillance and monitoring reinforces experiences of felt stigma, which is one's sense of inhabiting a devalued status deriving from possessing socially degraded identities leading one to perceive exclusion, rejection, and shame (Scrambler, 2009). Conversely, being the brunt of stigmatization means that one also navigates surveillance based on these perceived devalued statuses (Benbow et al, 2019;Patel, 2012). As such, stigma becomes another mechanism of surveillance; this is a particularly complex process to manage for formerly incarcerated women, as multiple societal marks of "deviance" communicate permanent devalued statuses (Gunn et al, 2018;Leverentz, 2011) and, consequently, reify and reproduce existing inequities of class, race, gender, and sexuality (Parker & Aggleton, 2003).…”