An ambiguous hierarchy of inequalities. The political intersectionality of older women’s homelessness in Poland

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the most important findings from a research project on women’s homelessness in Poland, demonstrating that most Polish studies on homelessness fail to acknowledge its gender dimension, which remains unproblematized and unseen in the wider context of women’s position in society. Up until now feminist theorizing, and intersectionality in particular, has not been present in research on homelessness in Poland. The article adopts the concept of ‘political intersectionality’ that demonstrates how policies fail to acknowledge these overlapping categories of exclusion. Further, it reconstructs conceptualizations of women’s homelessness as presented by policymakers, service providers, and women’s activists, showing that politics does not recognize the overlap between women’s situation and homelessness due to divergent policies and financing streams. Finally, the paper analyzes narratives of older women, collected in the years 2017–2018 in homeless shelters. The article shows how the needs of old women experiencing domestic violence are not met by the system, which does not recognize the intersection of age and experiences of violence. This indicates how an ambiguous hierarchy of inequalities is construed: age determines which specific problems are deemed most important in one’s situation and – consequently – what kind of support one can be granted.

KEYWORDS:

• Intersectionality
• homelessness
• domestic violence

Acknowledgments

This paper is written thanks to research financed by the Polish National Science Centre (project no. 2015/17/B/HS6/04191).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Expert interview codes (e.g. 06_C_2017) indicate: consecutive number, location of interview (P for Podkarpackie, W for Warsaw, C for central/national organization), year when the interview was conducted.

2. Real names of interviewees have been changed to ensure their anonymity.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Narodowe Centrum Nauki [2015/17/B/HS6/04191].

Notes on contributors

Magdalena Mostowska

Magdalena Mostowska is a sociologist, lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Geography and Regional Planning at the University of Warsaw. She has completed a couple of research projects on the homelessness of Polish migrants in EU member states. She is a member of the Women’s Homelessness in Europe Network and is currently researching women’s experiences of homelessness in Poland.

Katarzyna Dębska

Katarzyna Dębska is a PhD student in the Institute of Sociology at the University of Warsaw. She is currently preparing her PhD thesis “Class reproduction in a family. Inheritance, status change and life paths of siblings. She is also participating in a research project entitled ‘Dynamics of women’s homelessness in Poland’.