Abstract
The number of people living on the streets is increasing, yet studies and public policies aimed at the female public are still scarce, which is why this article turned to the daily life of the streets to analyze the psychosocial implications of stigmas and prejudices in homeless women’s lives. Being a woman in this scenario evokes power relations inserted in the concept of gender, considered as a social construction and based on patriarchal relations. To be on the streets is to be exposed and to be the target of discriminatory actions that include invisibility in the face of public policies, processes of exclusion, and violent actions perpetrated in the network of relationships woven from the streets. We conducted qualitative research, in which we use in-depth interviews, with seven homeless women in the city of Maracanaú (Ceará, Brazil). We submitted the collected material to Content Analysis, which used the Atlas ti 5.2 software to identify oppressive processes present in the stigmas and prejudices, which act by disqualifying and discrediting these women and lead to feelings of humiliation and shame capable of affecting their ways of life and the relationships established in their daily lives.
Keywords:
Women; Homeless; Oppression; Stigma; Prejudice