Women, Stigma, and Structural Inequality

Women, Stigma, and Structural Inequality In appreciation International Women’s Day, I am reflecting on research I have co-authored examining women’s experiences of homelessness, drug and alcohol use, stigma, and multiple disadvantage, and what this work tells us about the structural nature of gendered harm. In our research with women experiencing homelessness and multiple disadvantage in Stoke-on-Trent, we identified persistent unmet need, unsafe and unsuitable accommodation, and fragmented service provision operating within a context of entrenched health and social inequalities (McCormack & Fedorowicz, 2022). Women consistently emphasised the importance of long-term, psychologically and physically safe spaces. Safety was not framed as an optional enhancement to provision, but as foundational to stability, recovery, and rebuilding trust. The study situated women’s homelessness within broader structural inequalities, highlighting how austerity, poverty, gendered violence, and gaps in local provision intersect to produce ongoing precarity. Importantly, this work demonstrated that homelessness among women cannot be understood solely as a housing issue. It is inseparable from gendered violence, mental ill health, drug and alcohol use, poverty, and systemic disinvestment. Addressing women’s homelessness therefore requires gender-informed, trauma-aware, and structurally responsive systems that move beyond crisis management toward sustainable, relational models of support. In our study examining stigma in relation to women, drug and alcohol use, mental health, and criminal justice in the West Midlands (Page et al., 2024), we explored how stereotypes, particularly constructions of the “dishonest” or “manipulative” woman with substance use issues, produce tangible social harms. The paper analysed how intersecting stigmas operate across drug and alcohol treatment, criminal justice, and mental health contexts, reinforcing exclusion and undermining recovery. We found that stigma within professional systems can damage therapeutic relationships, delay or restrict access to care, and compound trauma. Women’s drug and alcohol use was frequently intertwined with histories of abuse, coercion, and cumulative disadvantage, yet service responses were not consistently trauma-informed or gender-responsive. Across these studies, several shared themes were identified:

1. Structural inequality is routinely individualised. Women’s distress is often framed as personal dysfunction rather than as a response to cumulative social and structural harm.
2. Stigma functions as a barrier to care. It shapes professional perceptions, service eligibility, and women’s willingness to seek support.
3. Safety and relational continuity are central. Short-term and fragmented interventions fail to account for the complexity of women’s lives.
4. Lived experience constitutes expertise. Participatory approaches are not merely methodological choices but ethical commitments to recognising women as knowledge holders within systems that frequently marginalise them.

Taken together, this body of work reinforces the need for trauma-informed, gender-informed, and structurally aware practice across housing, health, criminal justice, and social care systems. If we are committed to equity, then investment in safe accommodation, stigma reduction, cross-sector collaboration, and meaningful involvement of women with lived experience must move from aspiration to implementation.   Call to action Women experiencing multiple disadvantage are not “hard to reach”; they are too often navigating services that were not designed with them in mind. If we are serious about equity, we must design systems with women, not simply for them. Listen to lived experience. Invest in safety. Build relational continuity. Shift from deficit-focused approaches to strengths-based models that recognise women’s expertise and potential. Refuse narratives that individualise structural harm. Change begins when we treat women not as problems to be managed, but as partners in reshaping the systems that affect their lives. We are grateful to all our research colleagues who collaborated on this work. To continue the conversation, share insights, or explore future collaborative projects, please get in touch. Sophia.insight@expertcitizens.org.uk   References McCormack, F., & Fedorowicz, S. (2023). Women, homelessness and multiple disadvantage in Stoke-on-Trent: The need for safe places in the context of wider health and social inequalities. Local Economy, 37(8), 655-675. Page, S., Fedorowicz, S., McCormack, F., & Whitehead, S. (2024). Women, addictions, mental health, dishonesty, and crime stigma: Solutions to reduce the social harms of stigma. International journal of environmental research and public health, 21(1), 63.   Further reading McCormack, F., Fedorowicz, S., & Hine, R. (2022). Women, homelessness and multiple disadvantage – the need for a gender‑informed approach: Building on insight from the Specialist homeless women’s worker project within Housing First Stoke‑on‑Trent (February 2022). CHAD Research/Expert Citizens CIC/Staffordshire University. McCormack, F., Fedorowicz, S., & Gidlow, C. (2019, December). The provision of support services for women in Stoke-on-Trent: Project report. CHAD Research/Staffordshire University. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]