Drifting Along or Dropping into Homelessness A Class Analysis of .docx

Drifting Along or Dropping into Homelessness: A Class
Analysis of Responses to Homelessness
Darrin Hodgetts, Ottilie Stolte, Linda Waimarie Nikora and
Shiloh Groot School of Psychology, University of Waikato,
Hamilton, New Zealand; [email protected]
Abstract: Prominent assumptions about street homelessness and
how it should be addressed originate primarily from middle
class domiciled worldviews. This article draws on interviews
with 58 street homeless people to develop a typology for
explaining different forms of homelessness resulting from
differences in class of origin. The concepts of social distance
and abjection are used to illustrate how class politics manifests
in street homelessness and in responses to this issue. Many of
our homeless participants referred to two broad groupings of
homeless people who display distinct experiences and cultures
in their daily lives on the streets. Drifters are people who do not
experience homelessness as a sharp disjuncture from their
previously housed life. Street homelessness is a continuation of
the hardships of their lower class backgrounds. Droppers are
people
whohave“fallen”onhardtimesandaspiretoreturntomainstreammid
dleclasslifeworlds. Differentiating between these two groups
provides a space for defamiliarizing dominant understandings
of, and current generic responses to, homelessness and
foregrounds the need for reorienting services to better meet the
needs of drifters.
Keywords: abjection, class, domicile, homelessness, social
distance, social services
Introduction
Contemporaryurbanlandscapesfeaturethecohabitationofpeopleliv
inginpoverty and those situated within more afﬂuent
circumstance (WHO 2010). This article draws upon a class
analysis to explore processes of social distancing (Hodgetts et
al 2011) and abjection (Douglas 2002 [1966]) that are central to

the policing of relations between social groups and for
preserving social order in the city. We offer an analysis of the
importance of class of origin for understanding differences
within the homeless population and the reactions of more
affluent domiciled citizens to homeless people. In the process
we reveal the functioning of social power relations in
understanding and responding to homelessness.
CentralAucklandisarelevantlocationforthisresearchbecauseitfeat
uresregularly in media framings of homelessness. When New
Zealanders think of homelessness they often think of the
Auckland central business district and images of begging on
Queen Street that have populated media reports for almost a
century, thus constituting part of our shared cultural heritage
(Hodgetts et al 2008). Within 3 km of the Sky Tower reside
affluent citizens in close proximity to lower socio-economic
statuscitizensexperiencingthehighestpopulationdensityandpovert
yindexscores
Antipode Vol. 44 No. 4 2012 ISSN 0066-4812, pp 1209–1226
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00977.x C 2012 The Author.
Antipode C 2012 Antipode Foundation Ltd.
1210 Antipode
in New Zealand (Hodgetts and Stolte 2009). Walking around the
area one is likely to see street homeless people (Hodgetts et al
2010) and perhaps assume that they constitute a homogenous
group, the dispossessed. We would argue that there is a key
difference between members of this group that is overlooked in
research. First, there is a broad grouping of droppers, or middle
class people who have fallen on hard times and who must learn
to adapt to street life. Second, there are the drifters, or people
who are born and raised in poverty. Such people have the skills
to adapt relatively seamlessly to street life, but they are less
likely to comply with domiciled norms and laws. It is our
contention that responses to homelessness generally comprise
attempts to help the first group back into mainstream domiciled
life. These same responses also comprise attempts to acculturate
the second group into a mainstream middle class domiciled

existence that they ﬁnd foreign. New Zealand has a history of
such attempts to assimilate marginalized groups, such as the
manner in which M ¯ aori were acculturated into domiciled
settler lifestyles to comply with colonial societal structures
(Beaglehole and Beaglehole 1975 [1946]). Urban geographers
have made useful observations regarding the increasing
divisions between enfranchised and disenfranchised groups, and
lower class populations ensconced in contemporary urban
landscapes (Cumbers, Helms and Swanson 2010; Sibley 1995).
As a structural feature of society, urban poverty involves groups
of people with fewer resources than other people and a history
of being rendered socially distant (Hodgetts et al 2008, 2011;
Mitchell and Heynen 2009; Wacquant 2008). References to such
group distinctions can be found in scholarly texts since the
inception of the social sciences. Terms used to invoke such
heterogeneous groups (who nonetheless defy easy classiﬁcation)
include the “unsavable”, “undeserving”, “unhomed”, “deviant”,
“disruptive”, “poor” or “outcasts” (Mayhew 1861; Shubin 2011;
Veness 1993). The most impoverished of these groups conduct
their lives on the fringes of society outside of dominant systems
of employment, law and morality. In New Zealand, M¯aori are
overrepresented in this group and the related street homeless
population. Social scientists focus both on what is wrong with
“the poor” and what is wrong with social structures that lead to
entrenched poverty (cf Cresswell 1997a; Marcus
2005;Navarro2009).Inadditiontodocumentingtheinequalitiesface
dbyhomeless people and how these adversely affect them, we
need to reinvigorate class analyses to open up spaces for
alternative perspectives and solutions to the problems they face
(cf Navarro 2009). Geographers have called for increased class
analyses that
retainongoinginterestsinculture,genderandidentity(Strangleman2
008).Afterall, class “...rests not only on the material and labour
market position of individuals, households and communities,
but also on symbolic value and cultural practice, intertwining a
number of interpretations of class position and class

subjectivity” (Stenning 2008:10). This is important for
geography because class textures the landscapes of everyday
life and reproduces social inequities. Class is political, material,
emplaced and discursive, being entwined within struggles over
power, place and meaning. As Stenning (2008:11) writes, “We
can not dismiss class, nor can we shy away from the difficulties
of studying its complexities.” The proposition that middle and
lower class lifeworlds are distinct and caught in inequitable
relationships of power can be linked to neo-Weberian
understandings
C 2012 The Author. Antipode C 2012 Antipode Foundation
Ltd.
Drifting Along or Dropping into Homelessness 1211
of class that examine the complex interactions between
structure (which is primarily understood as habitus) and
outcomes for individuals (Bourdieu 1998). The divergence
between middle and lower class habitus reflects how individual
experiencesandpsychologicalfactorsgeneratevaryingopportunitie
swithinsocietal structures that lead people to street
homelessness. Our approach is one where class
isnotviewedasareifiedabstraction(Cumbers,HelmsandSwanson20
10),butasan ongoing process embedded in daily life where
poorer people can and do transgress the status quo. This article
reconnects the issue of homelessness with a class-based account
to reveal power struggles embedded within and shaping current
responses to homelessness. We adopt the broad term middle
class to refer to people who generally can command sufficient
resources to the extent that their participation in mainstream
society is largely taken for granted. We acknowledge the
diversity inherent in such a grouping. Nonetheless, we present
the argument that a broadly defined middle class habitus
provides the primary normative basis for defining, and finding
solutions to, homelessness (cf Shubin 2011; Veness 1993). This
results in responses that are more relevant to the repatriation of
people from middle class backgrounds to their former lifeworlds
and less effective in addressing the needs of the classes below

them.
Class, Social Distancing and Abjection in Shaping Responses to
Homelessness While acknowledging that classes are far from
homogenous entities, Lawler (2005) links a class analysis to
issues surrounding middle class taste and disgust towards
working class forms of existence. She notes the importance of
understanding classbased assumptions and their implications for
other groups. Lawler refers to Orwell’s (1975 [1937]:112)
proposition that middle class disgust towards working class
people in the West is captured by four words “The lower classes
smell”. As Orwell observed, the middle classes deﬁne
themselves through their perceived difference and distance from
lower class people in terms of appearance, taste and behaviour.
Middle class worldviews tend to delegitimate lifestyles
associated with lower class lifeworlds, rendering“thepoor”
strangeanddistant(cfShubin2011; Veness1993). Hodgetts and
colleagues (2011) explored such issues in terms of domiciled
peoples’ perceptions of social distance and estrangement from
homeless people. Social
distancingestablishesrelationshipsbetweendomiciledandhomeles
sgroupsalonga
continuumwithfamiliarity(nearness,intimacy)atoneendandunfami
liarity(farness,
difference)attheotherend.TheconceptderivesfromSimmel’s(1921[
1908])work on“thestranger”; anideal typeof individual
orgroupthatisdistancedsocially from others, being only partially
members of society, and who often transgress social
conventions. The stranger embodies social distance and
revulsion when in close proximity to members of middle class,
domiciled society. In geography, considerable attention has
been given to the regulation of public spaces and displacement
of strangers who are deemed to be “dirty”, “disruptive” and “out
of place” (Cresswell 1996, 1997a; Mitchell and Heynen 2009;
Sibley 1995). In her seminal work on Purity and Danger,
Douglas (2002 [1966]:2) asserts that the removal of tainted
bodies is not just about the fear of ﬁlth, contagion

Ltd.
1212 Antipode
and disease: “There is no such thing as absolute dirt: it exists in
the eye of the beholder...Dirt offends against order. Eliminating
it is not a negative movement, but a positive effort to organise
the environment”. Kristeva (1982:4) reiterates this point when
she writes, “It is thus not lack of cleanliness or health that
causes abjection but what disturbs identity, system, order. What
does not respect borders, positions, rules.” Dirt is in many
respects both material and discursive. For instance, Douglas
writes: “...if uncleanness is matter out of place, we must
approach it through order. Uncleanness or dirt is that which
must not be included if a pattern is to be maintained” (2002
[1966]:40). Being deemed unclean and out of place is associated
with social embarrassment and sanctions including ostracism,
contempt, fumigating, displacing, erasing and the re-imposition
of the social order (Douglas 2002 [1966]:40). Homeless bodies
are considered dirty, regulated, separated off, tidied up and
puriﬁed because, as polluters, they have come to be seen as
defective and to signify a lack of compliance with social norms
and regulations of decency (Hodgetts et al 2008, 2010). To
understand the broader processes at play in this estrangement of
homeless people we must be “...prepared to see in the body a
symbol of society, and to see the powers and dangers credited to
social structure reproduced in small on the human body”
(Douglas 2002 [1966]:115). We propose that such abjects are
the “unsavable outcasts” referred to by Mayhew (1861) who
threaten social order by living alternative and non-compliant
existences (Shubin 2011). The association of groups of
economically and socially marginalized people, such as “the
homeless”, with ﬁlth is not new. Working-class neighbourhoods
and slums have historically been seen as dirty and disease
ridden, with both physical and social sanitation a major concern
for nineteenth-century cities and urban environments (Cresswell
1997b; Mayhew 1861). Research into the social and cultural

history of nineteenth century New Zealand explores the role of
the subject of dirt in colonial
viewsofpublichealth,sanitationandmunicipalgovernanceinsettlers
ociety(Wood 2006). Similarly, Anderson’s (1995) study of
Filipino bodies as described in early twentieth century
American public health literature reveals a disturbing obsession
with the excretory practices of the colonial population, and how
a lack of sanitation was reflective of Filipinos as uncultured,
childish and animalistic beings. Moreover, in the present,
homeless people are also often viewed as lesser beings whose
bodies pollute and defile mainstream spaces, and thus they need
to be quarantined. The dirt and deviancy of particular urban
spaces, such as public toilets, sidewalks and
derelictbuildings,canalso“ruboff”orcontaminatehomelesspersons
whofrequent these settings. In these contexts, domiciled citizens
often avoid or react negatively to homeless people as un-
sanitized souls (Hodgetts et al 2008, 2010). Clearly, not all
domiciled reactions to street homelessness are purely punitive
(DeVerteuil, May and von Mahs 2009). Exclusionary practices
are often combined with efforts to improve the quality of life
for homeless people. Resources allocated towards assisting
homeless people are usually derived from a mix of sympathetic
responses to alleviate hardship and a perceived need to preserve
order, aesthetics and social norms in shared urban spaces
(Laurenson and Collins 2007). Domiciled
institutionsandgroupshaveconflictedresponsestotheplightof“thedi
spossessed” (Sibley 1981), who are pitied and vilified, embraced
and pushed away. Responses
Ltd.
to people in need vary according to the prescribed status of the
target person as “deserving” (savable) or “undeserving”
(unsavable) poor (Song 2006; Takahashi 1996). We contend that
such varied responses often reflect the class of origin of the
people involved. The lower classes are considered more deviant,

disruptive, distant, strange and dirty.
The Present Study This article challenges the assumed universal
applicability of domiciled, middle class assumptions regarding
the meanings of home and the status of people as a basis for
understanding and responding to homelessness. Such
questioning arises from our observation that services to assist
homeless people can have limited success for the majority of
long-term homeless people from lower class backgrounds.
Despite the best intentions to provide homeless people with
shelter and support, most homelessness persists not because of a
scarcity of resources, but as consequence of “a decidedly non-
pluralistic political organization of space” (Feldman 2006:22).
While keeping the everyday reality of adversity associated with
homelessness in mind, our class analysis is structured according
to two archetypes based on the lifeworld origins of rough
sleepers. At one end of our continuum are drifters who
driftalonginoverlappinglowerclassandhomelesslifeworlds.Suchh
omelesspeople have ended up on the streets as a progression of
an impoverished life course, and lack the habitus for sustained
domiciled existence. At the other end, there are droppers who
tend to drop into homelessness, usually as a result of traumatic
life events, and who often return relatively quickly to domiciled
life when rehoused and reintegrated. It is often easier to give
such homeless people a “hand-up” given that they are looking to
return to domiciled living and have the habitus to function in
mainstream society. Classiﬁcation has its risks as it assumes
that people can be grouped and ordered into discrete and
dualistic categories (Sedgwick 2001). We recognise the
limitations
ofthislogicandmaintainahealthyscepticismwhilstwesuggestthatdi
fferentclasses are in effect markers on a continuum. From such
a stance, a dualistic approach can function as a “discriminating
grid” to communicate complex information (Ingold 1996). A
similar approach is evident in the seminal work of Snow and
Anderson (1993). These authors observed that the diversity of
homeless people and their situations can “at ﬁrst glance” make

“the homeless” appear like “a highly heterogeneous
aggregation” (1993:38). Nonetheless, Snow and Anderson were
drawn to using an interpretative framework that involved two
overarching categorizations of homeless people as being either
“the recently dislocated” or “the outsiders”. The first group
cross both homeless and housed lifeworlds. Accordingly, when
“the recently dislocated” first become homeless they “are
understandably frightened by the stark and strange new world
they have entered” (1993:46). This experience is in contrast to
the second group, “the outsiders” who have been on the streets
for longer and, therefore, have become thoroughly integrated
into homeless streetcultures. Here, SnowandAnderson
identifyhomeless streetcultures as a distinct lifeworld that is
strange and different to a domiciled lifeworld, but one that over
time threatens to envelop newly homeless people. Such
homelessness
Ltd.
1214 Antipode
can be a marked disjuncture in an otherwise middle-class
lifeworld. Consequently, “the recently dislocated” are
individuals who experience a fall from grace into an “in-
between” state in that they are dislodged from domiciled life,
but they are also out of place on the streets. The distinctions
between the two groups living on the streets, as identified by
Snow and Anderson (1993), may be only in part due to the
length of time spent
sleepingroughand/orthedegreetowhichapersonadaptstoahomeless
subculture as a way of life. Poverty, social distancing and
abjection result in some groups of lower class people becoming
“outsiders” long before they become rough sleepers. They come
from social spaces replete with hardship and social exclusion,
and where the middle class notions of home as a private haven
seldom apply (cf Mallet 2004; Shubin 2011). In a figurative
sense, drifters can be “homeless” well before they become
houseless. Adjusting to street life is arguably a less daunting

prospect for people who have grown up in poverty, and have
learnt skills for surviving in adverse
physicalandsocialspaces.Suchindividualsoftenknowwhattodoinst
inctivelywhen moving from insecure and deprived households
and onto the streets. Although we
focusonprocessesofabjectionandthetexturinginfluenceofmiddlecl
assdomiciled assumptions on homeless people, we do not deny
the agency of, and defensive strategies employed by, homeless
people. This article presents a strand from our ongoing
investigation of material, spatial and relational contexts of
homelessness, which features human agency and resilience
(Hodgetts et al 2008, 2010). The project engages with homeless
people recruited from the Auckland City Mission—located
opposite the Sky Tower—where staff facilitate our access to
participants and enable us to conduct the study in a manner
sensitive to the needs of the participants involved. The 58
research participants have all had at least one in-depth
interview, with 36 also completing photo-elicitation exercises
and 12 participants engaging in further longitudinal research
over a 2-year period. We also conducted 26 interviews with
domiciled people who have regular contact with homeless
people, such as librarians, security guards, street cleaners and
social workers. This ethnographically oriented study reflects
Simmel’s (1997 [1903]) approach of focusing on everyday
events and experiences in order to understand the broader
patterning of society. According to this approach, local events
reflect ongoing societal processes that have significance beyond
specific moments.
Drifting from Lower Class Lifeworlds into Street Life Of our 58
participants, 48 were from lower class backgrounds. Many
experienced abuse as children, often whilst in state care or
foster homes, and they struggle with mental health and/or
substance misuse issues (O’Connell 2003; Tois 2005). These
individuals have been disconnected from mainstream domiciled
(read middle class) society for all of their lives. For such
individuals homelessness does not represent much of a

disjuncture from their lifeworlds, which have already been
shaped by poverty, disadvantage and marginalization. Having
less to lose at the outset, these individuals experience
homelessness as simply yet more hardship. They drift, rather
than experience a sharp drop, into homelessness. Furthermore,
such participants
Ltd.
also differentiated themselves from droppers. For example,
Nick, 41 years old, has been either on the streets, in gangs or in
prison since the age of 9. He refers to there being different
types of streeties, and that one group stays on the streets while
the other group drops in and then leaves: You get to know the
difference between the streeties...A lot of people come and go
from it. You get a lot of what we call like the middle class
fallers—bad relationship whatever; sell everything and are
drugging up and, a couple of months then they’re gone. Jacqui,
30 years old, ﬁrst became homeless when she was 11. Sexual
and physical abuse is common in her extended family and many
of her relations have ended up living on the streets (Groot et al
2011). Jacqui has largely accepted her life on the streets and has
strong relationships with her “street family”. When asked if she
ever felt unsafe being on the streets she replied “I’ve been here
most of my life. It’s just normal. Everything’s all good...It’s
pretty easy, street life.” Jacqui did not voice aspirations for
getting off the streets or changing her lifestyle. Her account
presents a familiar pattern in the stories of homeless woman and
men for whom the streets provide an “escape” from
dysfunctional relationships (Radley, Hodgetts and Cullen 2006).
When Jacqui’s aunt, Ari¯a (52 years old), was asked why so
many of her extended family were sleeping rough she explained
how they had all run away from home at a young age. Ari¯a
tells us: We all went through the same thing in our families.
You get taught to look after your siblings. You’re old before
your time, and you don’t stay at school long...The parents,

uncles, aunties alike interfering with you, and then expecting
you to shut up and hide things. And then they go to church, and
you’re sitting in church and wondering why are they doing that
and the very next day they go and do the same...You see all
that, aye. It sticks in here and it hurts. We suffer through it, day
in and day out. Not all homeless people from lower class
backgrounds have ﬂed to the streets because of abuse.
Nonetheless, such accounts illustrate that family abuse is
complicated by a context of poverty, which is a double burden
for children growing up in such settings. In these cases the
streets can offer a preferred alternative. Once on the streets,
private lives and activities are conducted in public and this
contributes to the further estrangement and abjectiﬁcation of
such individuals. Clinton, a 45-year-old homeless man, talked
about how one night he had food poisoning, which is a common
occurrence amongst rough sleepers who often eat food that has
been discarded. He presents an extreme situation in which a
homeless person must conduct private practices of health care
and sanitation in public (Mitchell 2003). Not only is Clinton
homeless, he is also literally fouling public space through no
choice of his own: It had been in the middle of the night, both
ends going—terrible! It was so bad I actually couldn’t walk. So
it was like something feral, I had to get under a tree. I went
through all my trousers. It just made you think “a toilet, a
bathroom!” And, I couldn’t actually get to a toilet without
messing myself. So it was a very violent tummy bug until two
o’clock in the afternoon. That’s no fun, lying under that tree,
cursing myself that a security guard comes along or the police.
They’re not going to be interested in the fact that I’m sick.
Ltd.
1216 Antipode
I’m going to be in real trouble. I’m just some weirdo guy who’s
messed himself lying under a tree. And, there’s something weird
here, you can’t say, “Hey I am homeless but normally I can look
after myself. Right now I’m really sick and I can’t get to the

toilet.” They’re just going to go, “What?!” It’s kind of funny
really. Domiciled people are generally disturbed by seeing
homeless people carry out “domestic” practices in public spaces
(Katz 1997). Such abject bodies comprise a depressing and
distasteful reminder of urban decay and do not ﬁt with middle
class visions of aesthetics and safety. Most of us would be
disturbed by the sight of a homeless person defecating in a park
(Herbert and Beckett 2010), albeit for different reasons. While
public defecation is offensive, the real issue here is not an
instance of transgressive behaviour, rather it is the fact that
police (and security guards) are the primary agents charged with
reducing the “symptoms of economic, social and physical
distress” (Herbert and Beckett 2010:242). Agents of the state
moved Clinton on in an effort to cleanse the park. Clinton’s bad
case of diarrhoea disrupted his more typical day-to-day efforts
to blend in and avoid offending domiciled citizens. In this
situation, however, Clinton was rendered socially distant given
he was fouling public space and sensibilities. Alongside such
unplanned occurrences which invoke distancing responses from
housed people, homeless people can also present themselves as
socially distant outsiders. Shaun, 44 years old, states: Most
Government departments, when you are a homeless person,
prefer to treat you as a non-entity, okay? You’re a nobody. One,
because you’re not paying tax; Two, you’re not inside the
boundaries of what “society is deemed to be” and you’re not
compliant. They just don’t get us. They don’t have time for it.
This extract reﬂects a homeless person’s realization that the
worldviews of housed and homeless are poles apart, and that
domiciled institutions struggle to comprehend street life and
those people who embrace this lifeworld. Joshua, 45 years old,
has also spent most of his life incarcerated in various
correctional facilities. “I got taken off my family. I was born in
1961, and I got taken off my family in 1970. Then, from there I
went to Borstal and straight onto
prison”.Joshuahasbeenthroughalcoholanddrugtreatmentprogram
mes24times. While these programmes ensure Joshua becomes

sober from time to time, they do nothing to change the realities
of his lower class lifeworld. Each time he has been rehoused
after exiting a detox facility, Joshua returns to the streets
because he is at home there, it is familiar, he knows what to do,
has the skills to do it and friends to do it with. He ﬁnds his
post-detox housed world “strange” and he is “not at home
there”. Although, Joshua’s life on the streets is damaging for
his physical health, it is
clearthatlifeonthestreetsismoreconduciveforJoshua’semotionalhe
alththrough his socializing and home-making activities in public
spaces: When all the boys get in and have barbeques...We go to
Foodtown [supermarket] and go through the bins. It’s a daily
thing for a lot of streeties; they hit the bins...You got heaps of
people sitting around and it’s brilliant. And then you get
everyone having spewing competitions to see who can spew the
furtherest! It’s fun aye, it really is. We are presented here with
an insight into Joshua’s social world and references to
theactivitiesthatdeﬁnethestreetsasahomeforhomelesspeople.Thes
cenedepicts
Ltd.
socializing and bonding through food, drink and shared
endeavour is painted from a homeless man’s perspective, which
deviates from public perception that sees
drinkingasanegativeanddisruptiveactivityengagedinby“lonelyold
tramps”.For Joshua, drinking is a positive activity through
which group solidarity and reciprocal relationships are
cultivated (Hodgetts, Cullen and Radley 2006). Our participants
talked at length about typical daily interactions with domiciled
people where they felt they were judged and treated as tainted
individuals who were messing up the place. They recounted
passers-by, often noticing them on the sidewalk with disdain.
They regularly experienced being dehumanized as abjects to be
avoided. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that homeless
people generally lack access to the private spaces of domestic

settings. By conducting much of their private lives in the open,
they are often considered to be defiling public space and
transgressing domiciled-based norms (Hodgetts et al 2008). In
the process, participants spoke overtly about feeling like non-
human scum. For example, a life trajectory of chaotic, marginal
and unsafe housing (cf Robinson, 2005) manifests for Daniel
(45 years old) in feelings of displacement, failure and self
disgust. Daniel’s account reflects contextual information that is
rarely considered when domiciled people come across a drunk
who is messing up the street: I went to the streets originally
because I kept on getting raped and abused. Drinking alcohol
takes the pain away...I don’t feel like a person sometimes. I
don’t know what I feel most of the time, ashamed of being
where I am now. It’s a feeling of disgust I suppose...I’ve had
my times when I’ve been suicidal. When you’re sitting on a
piece of cardboard in a sleeping bag, Bourbon in your hand and
the tears are pouring out...The emotional strain and stress of
doing what I’m doing everyday is getting to me... Self-loathing
and shame are associated with the positioning of self as abject.
Daniel’s profound sense of self-disgust reflects the threat for
homeless people of losing themselves to street life (Hodgetts,
Hodgetts and Radley 2006; Radley, Hodgetts and Cullen 2006).
Things are made worse for Daniel and others through forced
displacement and a lack of privacy: “We might be homeless, but
we deserve our privacy.” Going to the bathroom, sleeping and
drinking are all “acceptable” behaviours when done in private,
but are domestic practices deemed “unacceptable” when
performed in public (Mitchell 2003). This inevitably leads
Daniel into contact with authorities and the regulation of public
spaces (Mitchell and Heynen 2009). Examples of conflict
between homeless people and domiciled people suggest a
common rejection of the ambiguity home(less) people present.
Daniel discusses a particular sleeping spot that the council kept
moving them on from by repairing the fence to impede access to
the space: The council just keeps repairing it...There’s no law
that says you can’t sleep out, but where you sleep is another

thing! So they can trespass you from that area...The police, they
say you can only drink alcohol at home or a pub. Well, the
street is our home! If we’re sitting on the street drinking that’s
because we’re at home. Homeless people struggle to maintain a
sense of place and privacy in public. Trespass laws seek to
close off many of the small spaces of the city that make survival
for homeless people possible (Mitchell and Heynen 2009).
Policy strategies
Ltd.
1218 Antipode
can constrict the ability of homeless people to inhabit and make
a life in the city, or to maintain personal hygiene and self-
respect. Daniel’s efforts to make a home on the streets comprise
tactics for survival that break the rules of such public places in
thatoneisnotsupposedtomakeahomeordwellhere(deCerteau1984).
However, Daniel also works to clean up his space so that he
might be able to dwell there in the future and avoid being
abjectified. This constitutes a compromise with middle class
assumptions and resistance to him being estranged and
abjectified. Daniel’s efforts reflect subservience to the
contestation over the mutual constitution of place and class
(Stenning 2008). It is perhaps not surprising that some homeless
people come to resent and resist middle class culture, and/or
“opt out” to instead participate in the shadowy subcultures that
vie for space in the city. Many participants take a defiant and
assertive stance emphasizing the rights of homeless people to
dwell and engage in “typical” domestic practices in public.
Several participants reported being confrontational with
authorities who attempted to regulate their activities, such as
street home-making, parties and begging. In relation to begging,
Joshua defends his lifestyle and place in prime public spaces:
This security guard is a busker’s fucking nightmare. In thirty
minutes he came back and I’d moved one store down. He goes,
“I gave you a warning,” and I said, “Read that warning mate, on
the shop was I outside of.” He read it and he goes, “You cheeky

prick!” So he couldn’t do anything ‘cos you’re allowed to busk
legally outside any shop, as long as you’ve asked the shop
keeper, for thirty minutes and then you must move on. Homeless
people frequently come to the attention of the police due to
drinking and illegitimate income-procuring activities. It is in
instances such as the one Joshua describes that homeless people
come face to face with the regulation of society that
theyarenotfullyengagedwithorhaveoptedoutof,butwhichinﬂuence
stheirlives (Mitchell 2003). We see how class struggles have
become manifest in new forms of segregation and policing in
urban spaces. The accounts above invoke the ways in which
drifters experience and resist attempts to delegitimize and
regulate their lifestyles (cf Shubin 2011). Central here is that
the views of one class of people have consequences for others.
In this case the lifeworlds of homeless people from lower
classbackgroundscanbecomeinvalidatedbecausethesetransgressth
eassumptions
regardinghomeandtheappropriateuseofspaceheldbymanymiddlecl
asspeople. Veness (1993) questions the use of the term
“homeless” as it is often constructed
fromadomiciledperspectivetobeassociatedwithalackofadomesticd
wellingand to refer to the “unhomed”. To conduct domestic
practices in public is to transgress mainstream understandings
of home. The movement and contestation in relation to
assumptions of home and homelessness (Veness 1993) reﬂects a
politics of space associated with class and housed status.
Dropping out of Middle Class Domciled Existence and into
Street Life A key strategy employed by people at risk of
estrangement and abjection is to conform to dominant moralities
and expectations in order to be reintegrated into
Ltd.
society (cf Douglas 2002 [1966]). We propose that such
strategies are more feasible for droppers than drifters. People
who drop into homelessness retain vestiges of middle class

habitus, which facilitates their attempts to seek help from
domiciled people and to secure pathways out of homelessness.
As we will argue later in this
article,researchersandserviceprovidersaremoreequippedtounders
tandmembers of this group as their life experiences are more
“recognizable”. These people are more likely to receive public
sympathy and support because they possess the social skills and
traits that make them seem more like members of the “domiciled
public”. Reintegration into domiciled life means receiving the
supports they need to return to a familiar domiciled place.
Luke,49yearsold,exemplifiesthedropperscategoryofhomelesspers
on.Formally a health professional, Luke explains what led to
him ending up on the streets: I’ve had depression building up
throughout my life and in the mid 90s it came to a head when
the two closest people to me died on the same day, an hour
apart. My grandmother, who was the only relative I was close to
(I’m totally alienated from the rest of my family) and my ex-
lover. And it totally enveloped me—the depression...I stopped
showering, going out, and eventually I couldn’t stay where I
was as I was given notice. But, I couldn’t really move anywhere
as the housing was pretty dreadful for someone in my situation.
Luke’s world started to unravel following the deaths of two
significant people. Luke
stillengagesinmiddleclassactivities(writingpoetryandreading)whi
lehidingaway from other street people with a view to returning
home to a domestic lifeworld. He presents the public library as
a place to be safe, to engage in conversations and to provide an
escape from a life predominantly lived alone in marginal spaces
on the streets. Continued visits to the library and engaging in
academic pursuits provided continuity between his domiciled
and homeless existence: Not only because I’ve been a constant
reader and studier throughout my life, but also because I know
about four or five people who work in the library. I always have
someone to chat with...I gave myself a personal meaning, a
social significance, a personal value by not allowing my
situation to dominate my desire to carry on certain areas of my

life unchanged. Like my constant desire to learn, and to
research and to communicate. They were intrinsic to my core
nature. And a lot of homeless people run the risk of losing that
core. Despite homeless people frequently being characterized as
being out-of-place,
nonpersons(Feldman2006;Mitchell2003;Sibley1995;Whiteford2
008),somecanand
doexperiencepositiveinteractionswithmembersofthepublic(Hodg
ettsetal2008, 2010). Luke invokes the library as a site for the
maintenance of self through simple activities such as chatting.
His comments raise the importance of relationships with library
staff in supporting a sense of belonging, respite and refuge
among homeless men (Hodgetts et al 2008). This identity work
reﬂects how middle class homeless people attempt to hold onto
core aspects of their being despite the adversity of street life
and the potential to lose oneself to the street. The variations in
approaches to street life between drifters and droppers provide
additional illustrations of the different lifeworlds and habitus of
these groups. In a study of homelessness and social distance
(Hodgetts et al 2011), Luke was referred
Ltd.
1220 Antipode
to by a housed participant (Sue). In her interview, Sue (41 years
old) talked about
thesocialclosenessshefelttoLuke,asamiddleclasshomelessmanwh
osleptinthe doorway at the bottom of her building and who she
described as her neighbour. Luke was juxtaposed in the
woman’s account with Joshua (see previous section) and others,
for whom she felt increased social distance because they were
not good neighbours because they failed to observe mainstream
social norms. Joshua and his mates drank and slept in a park
across the road and made a “disgusting” mess of the place.
Droppers were at pains to differentiate themselves from drifters
and to align themselves with mainstream domiciled society. For
example, Brett, 44 years old, ﬁrst became homeless in Auckland

in 2001 as a result of a relationship breakup, a failed business
and addiction to drugs and alcohol. Brett is mostly a loner on
the
streetsandkeepsadistancefromother“streeties”.Brettworkshardto“
fitin”asjust another “normal person” so he is not noticed as
being homeless. Brett’s account also invokes the idea that there
are different classes of homeless people and how one group of
homeless people lacks the skills and education needed to
operate in society, which means they will most likely remain
homeless. He tells us: I’ve always been pretty much a loner on
the streets. That’s why I go to pubs and clubs to be around
[housed] people. I like to keep clean and tidy. Just because you
live on the streets doesn’t mean you have to be a bum! I don’t
beg. I find that too demoralizing. I try to avoid them [streeties]
as much as possible. I don’t like it cos it’s not the way I ever
lived. I didn’t start living on the streets till I was 39. So it was a
totally different world for me, but I’m a survivor I can adapt to
whatever world I’m living in. In one way I suppose I’m lucky
because I wouldn’t class myself as stupid or ignorant. That’s
why with the library and things like reading that keeps my brain
busy. It’s an escape and with being educated and having
manners and things like that means it’s a lot easier to adapt and
socialize with normal people I guess. For a lot of other lower
class street people they can’t do that. They don’t have the
education or the skills to be able to do that. No, they can’t move
into other worlds, which is why in some ways they’re stuck
here. Droppers share and comply with the domiciled definition
of homelessness while drifters tend not to do so. Drifters work
to make a home on the streets whereas droppers simply seek to
survive, whilst desiring a shift back to the domiciled life. Such
distinctions between lower and middle class participants remain
over time in terms of the difference in their desire for a middle
class domiciled existence. However, such desires can be eroded
the longer middle class people remain on the streets (Snow and
Anderson 1993). Along our continuum, Richard stood out as a
participant who grew up in a middle class family. While

Richard had a middle class start in life, as a teenager his
behaviour was considered too disruptive for his school and
home environment. As a common feature in youth homelessness
among the middle classes (Kidd and Davidson 2007), coming
from an affluent background meant his parents could afford
visits to a psychiatrist. Richard has not established a “normal”
middle class adult existence due to his drug use. Instead, he has
circulated between insecure or temporary lodgings, prison,
psychiatric institutions, rehabilitation centres and the streets.
Despite the 25 years of living an itinerant lifestyle, Richard
says:
Ltd.
I don’t prefer being on the street. I hate it, really hate it! The
main reason I think why I am homeless is because I spent quite
a few years in treatment centres. And it’s become apparent to
me that I’m institutionalized. I function well in a structure like
a rehab treatment centre or in prison. When I’m left to my own
devices it gets progressively worse. Richard’s disrupting life
event is drug addiction, but without the drugs Richard would be
functional in a mainstream lifeworld. The way Richard talks
about his lack of material wealth at his age is reflective of
middle class norms and values to which he aspires: My life, the
fact that I’m 45-years-old, I don’t own my own house. I don’t
even rent a house. I don’t have a car. I don’t have a girlfriend. I
have little self respect and or respect from others, several teeth
missing. I don’t have a dental plate. And yet, I come from a
family of high achievers and I was an intelligent person and so
the shame of that. Richard’s account reveals shame about the
contrast between his current lifestyle and his middle class
background. In reflecting on his life, Richard believes that he
has let everyone down beginning with his school teachers and
his parents. At times like this, Richard reveals that he still feels
“out of place” in his current homeless lifeworld—even though
he has been there for a long time. Begging or car-window

washing are common activities amongst many homeless people.
However, Richard views such activities as “beneath him”. In
contrast, drifters did not list material aspirations such as a car
or indeed the possibility of dental care. Their sense of self was
not at all connected to whether or not they had material wealth,
and home
ownershipwasacompletelyalienaspirationforthem.Eventhougham
ajorityofour participants had abysmal dental health, a lack of
access to dental care was simply considered a “fact of life”.
Implications for Understanding Homelessness and Responses
Classness is emplaced in the everyday actions of homeless
people. Our research shows a relatively clear delineation in
terms of class of origin as one of the key
elementsinunderstandinghomelessness.Middleclassparticipantss
pokeoftraumas such as bereavement, injury, mental health and
job loss, which are more likely to endear them as deserving
homeless people. They have fallen on hard times, seem less
strange or distant and can be helped back into the familiar fold.
People from the lower classes, however, tend to experience
homelessness as an unremarkable part of a cycle of poverty and
disadvantage that marks their lives, rather than experiencing a
fall. Although the pathway back to domiciled life is frequently
difﬁcult even for middle class people, there is no pre-existing
path to follow to a mainstream lifeworld for the lower classes.
We propose that when services fail for the lower classes it is
often due in part to misunderstandings and disconnections
betweenmiddleandlowerclasslifeworlds.Thepathwayoutofhomele
ssnessusually involves adjusting to domiciled situations that
comprise an unfamiliar domain. Processes of abjection and
estrangement become central to the disciplining of this group.
Ltd.
1222 Antipode
Missingfrommuchofthewritingonabjectionaretheexperiencesandr
eactionsof the abject. How do homeless people respond to the
ways in which others construct them as ﬁlthy beings to be

avoided and displaced? In response to the threats of abjection
there are clear trends of response that differ between our two
groups.
Driftersattempttoclaimaspaceonthestreetsfromwhichtowranglewi
thpoliceand manipulate the rules. Droppers try to comply and
hide away out of sight while they await rescue. In exploring
such accounts we move beyond abstract theorizing and the
tendency in psychoanalytic theories on abjection (Kristeva
1982) to universalize human experience. Ours is a shift towards
recognizing human agency in the ways people conduct their
lives as subjects of abjectification. We nonetheless retain the
centralrelationalorientationtotheorizingabjection(Berressem2007
;Douglas2002 [1966]; Kristeva 1982) in the argument that
middle class domiciled groups can markthebodiesof lower
classes as disgustingandfilthy. Suchdistinctions ofdisgust
function to warrant the cleansing of homeless people from the
urban landscape to maintain respectability of place. Central here
are processes of social difference and distance between classes
of people (Hodgetts et al 2011). Homeless bodies are
“...somethingrejectedfromwhichonedoesnotpart”(Kristeva1982:4
).Theabject lies “quite close” as something intolerable and
dreaded that is not constrained by
expectedaestheticandmoralstandards.Abjectioninvolvesacomplex
andcontested process, whereby the “abject” as stranger remains
in society as a sign of difference and repulsion. How
homelessness is understood and reflected on by domiciled
middle class people has implications for the extent and shape of
services provided to assist homeless people and the rationales
behind such interventions (Song 2006; Takahashi 1996).
Understanding the diverse situations of homeless people is
helpful (DeVerteuil, May and von Mahs 2009), but it is also
important to realise that there are distinct patterns such as that
suggested by the framework in this paper. While many service
providers acknowledge the diversity of homeless people, the
broader political and administrative programmes for addressing
homelessness are usually more limited. In general, policy

prescriptions tend to focus on simply providing rudimentary
housing (often low quality and/or temporary), and operate from
the
presumptionthathomelesspeoplewill(somehow)adapttoadomicile
dmainstream lifeworld with relatively little preparation and few
supports (Busch-Geertsma 2005). Nonetheless, at the coal face
most helping agencies not only deal with immediate survivalist
needs of their clients, but also the issues, hardships and
complications that pre-date their clients’ homeless situations.
MacLeod (2002) noted that the voluntary and community sector
is increasingly holding a primary role in providing care for
homeless people and those adversely affected by welfare and
housing reforms. Community agencies must do this work with
limited funding and under considerable bureaucratic constraints
and public scrutiny. It can be more difﬁcult for agencies to
provide services to assist drifters because to
recognizetheirneeds(oreventheexistenceofsuchacategoryofhomel
esspeople), is to raise the prospect of the lower classes and
poverty as political issues (cf Navarro
2009).Thescopeforsuchconsiderationstendstobecircumventedinc
urrentpublic discussions in favour of an individualized view of
the rational and self-responsible citizen who can pull
themselves up by the bootstraps. Given the predominance
Ltd.
of public discourses about self-responsibility (Ravenhill 2008),
agency workers and donors may experience impatience with
homeless people who can be perceived to be making too little
effort “to help themselves”. Thus, the supports and services
available to homeless people can be ﬁckle, and particular
homeless individuals can “exhaust” goodwill if they are not
seen to improve their situation at some point. The spirit of
services attempting to assist “those less fortunate” is not in
question. However, we concur with Hoffman and Coffey’s
observation of the “audit culture” affecting homeless services

with its emphasis on “numbers served” rather than “how they
are served” (2008:208). Beyond the inconstant resources
derived from charitable donations, community-based services
are under increasing pressure to demonstrate that they can
“solve” homelessness and deliver successful outcomes in order
to maintain local or central government funding. The trend
towards linking funding to narrow measures of outcomes, such
as homeless street counts or the
throughputofsuccessfullyrehousedhomelessindividuals,isproble
matic(O’Connell 2003; Stolte 2006). This situation risks the
dilemma of “inverse care” (cf Hart 1971).
Inotherwords,homelesspeoplewiththefewestchallengesintheirlive
sareassisted ﬁrst, as they are the most likely to be rehoused and
reintegrated with the least amount of time, effort and resources.
Meanwhile homeless people who “fail” to respond positively or
promptly to services to rehouse and reintegrate them risk being
overlooked or treated with disdain. They become relegated to
the very end of the social assistance queue. Yet, this group,
which usually constitutes the lower classes, are the most in need
of support, as their transition to mainstream society is
aschallengingasimmigratingtoaforeigncountry.Thereluctancetoas
sistthemost entrenched homeless people with the most complex
life situations (the drifters) may be born out of administrative
demands, but it also aligns with more conservative views of
homeless people as failing to respond and lacking the initiative
to “help themselves”. Consequently, the hegemony of a middle
class habitus can lead to a further dis-functionality between
various welfare agencies and clients, and the further structural
disadvantage of drifters.
Brieﬂy,effortstoassisthomelesspeoplearelikelytobelimited,eveni
nappropriate, if there are few attempts to acknowledge realities
beyond mainstream middle class assumptions and worldviews.
A failure to acknowledge other lifeworlds means that services
for homeless people are tailored to people who are generally
comfortable with mainstream and middle class norms and
values, even if they have temporarily transgressed these by

sleeping rough. Such status quo services are designed to assist
fallen mainstream citizens and to assimilate lower class
individuals. There is a need to recognise that the situations of
homeless people from the lower classes appear quite distinct
and require different approaches that take non-mainstream
lifeworlds into account. Being critical of the application of
middle class assumptions onto homeless people creates a
dilemma for us. Although we seek to legitimate the everyday
cultures of our participants, we also acknowledge that street life
comes at a considerable cost to their wellbeing (Hodgetts,
Chamberlain and Radley 2007). Homeless people can survive
and may in some cases thrive more viably when on the streets.
What we wish to do is open up a space for considering how we
might start to develop viable alternatives that respond more
closely to the needs of people from lower and underclass
lifeworlds who are most at risk of street life.
Ltd.
1224 Antipode
Acknowledgements This research was funded by the Marsden
Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand (application number
06-UOW-045). We thank the staff and clients of the Auckland
City Mission for their time and participation. We appreciate the
feedback on this article from David Neilson, Robyn Longhurst,
Cathy Coleborne, Neville Robertson and Alan Radley.
References Anderson W (1995) Excremental colonialism: Public
health and the poetics of pollution. Critical Inquiry 21:640–669
Beaglehole E and Beaglehole P (1974 [1946]) Some Modern
M¯aori. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational
Research Berressem H (2007) On the matter of abjection.
Genus: Gender in Modern Culture 9:19–48 Bourdieu P (1998)
Practical Reason. Cambridge: Polity Press Busch-Geertsema V
(2005) Does rehousing lead to reintegration? Follow-up studies
of re-housed homeless people. Innovation: The European
Journal of Social Science Research 18, 205–226 Cresswell T
(1996) In Place/Out of Place: Geography, Ideology and

Transgression. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Cresswell T (1997a) Weeds, plagues, and bodily secretions: A
geographical interpretation of metaphors of displacement.
Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87:330–
345 Cresswell T (1997b) Imagining the nomad: Mobility and the
postmodern primitive. In G Benko and U Strohmayer (eds)
Space and Social Theory: Interpreting Modernity and
Postmodernity (pp 360–379). Malden: Blackwell Cumbers A,
Helms G and Swanson K (2010) Class, agency and resistance in
the old industrial city. Antipode 42:46–73 de Certeau M (1984)
The Practice of Everyday Life. (trans S Rendall), Berkeley,
Calif: University of California Press DeVerteuil G, May J and
von Mahs J (2009) Complexity not collapse: Recasting the
geographies of homelessness in a “punitive” age. Progress in
Human Geography 33:646– 666 Douglas M (2002 [1966]) Purity
and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo.
New York: Routledge Feldman L C (2006) Citizens Without
Shelter. New York: Cornell University Press Groot S, Hodgetts
D, Nikora L W and Leggatt-Cook C (forthcoming) A M¯aori
homeless woman. Ethnography 12:375–397 Hart J T (1971) The
inverse care law. Lancet 1:405–412 Herbert S and Beckett K
(2010) “This is home for us”: Questioning banishment from the
ground up. Social and Cultural Geography 11:1470–1197
Hodgetts D, Chamberlain K and Groot S (2011) Reﬂections on
the visual in community research and practice. In P Reavey (ed)
Visual Psychologies: Using and Interpreting Images in
Qualitative Research (pp 299–313). London: Routledge
Hodgetts D, Chamberlain K and Radley A (2007) Health
inequalities and homelessness: Considering material, relational
and spatial dimensions. Journal of Health Psychology 12:709–
725 Hodgetts D, Cullen A and Radley A (2006) Television
characterizations of homeless people in the United Kingdom.
Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 5:29–48 Hodgetts
D, Hodgetts A and Radley A (2006) Life in the shadow of the
media. European Journal of Cultural Studies 9:497–516
Hodgetts D and Stolte O (2009) Social Impact Report: The Open

Space Component of the Auckland City Mission Building
Project, 16 June, Auckland City Hodgetts D, Stolte O,
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Running head: GENDER DISCRIMINATION; AN OUTCOME
OF INEQUALITY 1
GENDER DISCRIMINATION; AN OUTCOME OF
INEQUALITY 4
Gender Discrimination; an Outcome of Inequality
Student’s Name
Affiliation

Gender Discrimination; an Outcome of Inequality
1. Definition
Inequality is a vice that is deep-rooted in poverty, age, racial
lines, gender, age and even education. It is an affliction society
faces on a daily basis all around the world.
a) Gender-based discrimination. It is a disparity associated with
both male and female individualities that have been pre-defined
by ancient cultural norms. Male dominance is a common aspect
of societal hierarchy with women and children adopting
submission. There is a battle for equal opportunity for women
with regards to the men in society (Cohn, 2000). There are
imaginary lines drawn along gender differences that force
people of different sexes into pre-set categories.
2. Aspects of Inequality. Several aspects of inequality have
been constant contributors to the social problem that is gender
discrimination.
a) Male dominance. It is believed to stem from their inborn
biological tendency to be aggressive, has seen those of male
gender being awarded superiority. The weaker sex, women, is
overlooked, underappreciated and forced into submission.
Physical inequality between the genders works to set each of
them apart.
3. Role of Inequality in Gender Discrimination
The role of inequality in gender discrimination is clearly
visible. It fuels the social problem, driving it to further lengths
of disparity. Those individuals who strongly believe in gender
centered roles use inequality between sexes as a strong
argument for their cause.
a) Cultural beliefs. Different cultural beliefs that are still in
existence today have installed an accepted norm that men
should take up the role of providers and protectors whilst
women nurture offspring and tend to the home (Harrison, 2013).
This facilitates gender affiliated discrimination since with roles
already set for them; a woman’s attempt at deviation into a role
that is socially viewed as not female is frowned upon or flatly
rejected. In societies that avoid warfare and nurturing of young

is highly valued, women thrive (Harrison, 2013).
b) Physical characteristics of women. For example fragility has
led them to be overlooked in terms of hard labor or strenuous
tasks: they are most often preferred for light work. Menfolk,
especially those of high build are believed to be sound in terms
of health and resilient in war hence positioned in areas where
strength is a common factor.
4. General Fondness of a Particular Gender Over Another
The general fondness of a particular gender over another
seemingly insignificant one has an astounding impact on society
as a whole.
a) Imbalanced populations. Imbalanced populations arise when a
certain gender is favored. Men may be more in number than
women in countries that have higher preferences for males.
b) Economic issues. For example, poverty can be linked to
women’s inability to access jobs since they are believed to
desire to work near home. Those who do get jobs are poorly
paid, unlike their male co-worker. Women are not allowed to
own property in some societies; it's left to their husbands (In
Healey, 2014).
c) Political repercussions. For example, rebellions are a
consequence of gender-based discrimination. In China, the
increasing number of bachelor villages may force the single
men to revolt against the government’s one-child policy that
contributes to the population numbers.
d) Changes regarding the family unit. Marriages have evolved
from acts of necessities in terms of culture to personal choice
(Harrison, 2013). The rate of divorce has increased, and same-
sex families have cropped up. Single-headed families have also
become the norm.

References
Cohn, S. (2000). Race and gender discrimination at work.
Boulder, Colo: Westview Press.
Harrison, Brigid C. (2013). Power and Society: An Introduction
to the Social Sciences, 13th Edition. Cengage Learning
In Healey, J. (2014). Gender discrimination and inequality.

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