Landscapes on the Margins: Gender and Homelessness in Canada

This introductory article studies the issue of gendered homelessness to determin why so little academic feminist writing addresses this topic. The article starts with reference to a feminist novel, "The Longings of Women" by Marge Piercy-that tackles this matter. The invisibility of the novel's homeless character is used as a way of introducing some distinctions between women's and men's homelessness. The two main objectives of the article are to look at what feminist and other critical geographers have said, conceptually and empirically, about gendered homelessness, especially in Canada, but also in other Western contexts; and to bring to light the problematic nature of too great a focus on visibility in relation to gendered homelessness. This article gives the reader an alternative perspective drawn from examining the relations of bodies and urban space in conjunction with a discussion about the politics of scale and difference.

Publication Date: 
2006
Pages: 
365-381
Volume: 
13
Issue: 
4
Journal Name: 
Gender, Place and Culture