LEISURE IN THE LIVES OF WOMEN WHO ARE HOMELESS AND LIVE IN A TRANSITIONAL SHELTER Sandra Wolf Klitzing, Illinois State University

Transcription

1 LEISURE IN THE LIVES OF WOMEN WHO ARE HOMELESS AND LIVE IN A TRANSITIONAL SHELTER Sandra Wolf Klitzing, Illinois State University Homelessness has been a problem in the United States since the 1980s. Grimm and Maldonado (1995) noted that by the 1990s women accounted for almost one-half of the homeless population. The experience of being homeless was found to stigmatize women, create stress, cause depression, decrease self-esteem, and threaten human dignity (cf. Banyard & Graham-Bermann, 1995; Banyard, 1995; Fogel, 1997). Milburn and D'Ercole (1991) saw women who were homeless, not as victims, but as active agents that were capable of responding to aversive pressures and stress. When the strengths of women who were homeless were analyzed, researchers found that the women not only actively coped with adverse conditions (Banyard, 1995; Thrasher & Mowbray, 1995), but they resisted control and stigmatization (Williams, 1996). Williams described everyday forms of resistance like residents holding contests to see who could spend the least amount of time in a case manager's office or saying their car broke down so they could spend a night in a hotel with a significant other. Harrington and Dawson (1997) indicated that recreation could lead to personal empowerment for people who are homeless, and Dawson and Harrington (1996) thought it could improve the overall quality of their lives. Little research, however, has been conducted that examines leisure in the lives of women who are homeless. Klitzing and Morris (2001) found that women who lived in a transitional shelter could describe things in their lives that were enjoyable, fun, or relaxing. Most of these activities could be considered ordinary leisure (Kelly, 1983). For half of the women, however, leisure was not a term that was familiar. Shaw (1994) proposed a conceptual framework to help analyze and explore the complexity and contradictory nature of women's leisure within the context of their every day lives and experiences. According to Shaw's framework, leisure can be constrained, constraining, or resistance. This framework allows that leisure is not inherently positive or negative, and could be both positive and negative at the same time. Likewise, Shaw's framework recognizes that women can be active and powerful agents in their lives even though there may be constraints. This framework may be a useful tool in exploring, describing, and understanding leisure in the lives of women who are homeless. The overall guiding question for this exploratory qualitative study was "How do women who are homeless describe their leisure?" Method The present study is part of a larger qualitative research project. The data were primarily collected through semi-structured interviews that were conducted in January to June 2000 with a purposive sample of ten women who lived in a transitional homeless shelter. Five of the women were African American and five were European American. The women ranged in age from years. Six of the women had children with them in the shelter, and four were single women who had no children or did not have children with them in the shelter. Researcher observations, review of agency documents, and informal conversations with the women and staff helped to clarify responses to the interview questions. Follow-up interviews were conducted with four women who were still in the shelter after the original data were analyzed. All interviews were audiotaped with the women's permission, and transcribed in their entirety. The data were analyzed through the use of QSR*NUDIST and constant comparison procedures. Results To explore the positive and negative aspects of leisure, women who provided a definition of leisure were asked, "How do you feel when you experience leisure?" The women who did not define leisure were asked a similar question, but instead of the word "leisure", things the women had previously stated were inserted. For example, one woman was asked, "When you are singing, when you are playing with your kids, how do you feel?" while another was asked, "When you are out cruising, when you are listening to your tunes and you are dancing, when you are playing with the kids, how do you feel?" This same procedure of personalizing the question was used anytime leisure was in the question. Seven women discussed positive feelings. Five spoke about feeling relaxed. Three spoke about feeling good. Other positive feelings, such as being stress free or happy, were also mentioned. Two women discussed feelings that were not positive, and possibly could be construed as negative, such as feeling nervous and being bored. The women were asked, "Has leisure [personalized] ever been a negative experience for you?" Two of the women who said leisure had been a positive experience, said it had never been negative. Four of the women, who said leisure had been positive, indicated it had also been negative. Negative experiences included writing bad checks, running around while married, procrastinating, or guilt while engaging in leisure due to a work ethic upbringing. The women were asked, "Has your use of freetime or activities you enjoy doing ever gotten you in trouble in the [shelter]?" Six of the women answered no. The agency log noted, however, that four of the women had gotten written up by shelter staff for falling asleep in the living room while watching videos, staying in the bedroom for extended times playing with their child, socializing with each other or sneaking down the street to see a man and not watching their children,

2 having the TV loud at 1 a.m., watching adult movies at night, and missing a mandatory shelter meeting for a date. Three women said their free time or activities had gotten them into trouble at the shelter. One woman received a warning because her music was too loud. Two women's problems dealt with alcohol or drugs. The women in the study were asked if they thought their leisure [personalized] had changed from before they came to the shelter. One woman said that her leisure had not changed. Seven women indicated their leisure had changed. Three of these women said there were some changes, but their leisure was pretty much the same as before they were in the shelter. One woman discussed changes from being in the shelter, but the changes to her life seemed to be positive. The remainder of the women said there had been changes that they attributed to the restrictions placed on them by living in a shelter. Another question attempted to discover information about possible leisure constraints. The women were asked, "Is there anything that you would like to do in your leisure [personalized] but can't?" Six women indicated there were things that they could not do. Three of these women spoke about lack of money as being a problem. Two talked about money being a constraint in relation to travel, although one woman said that even when she had the money she did not necessarily take vacations. Another talked about how the lack of money had previously been a problem because she wrote bad checks and got into trouble. The three other women who identified constraints spoke about weather, traveling with a young child, shelter rules and regulations, and getting a bike back from her ex-boyfriend. Four of the women responded that there was not anything they wanted to do in their leisure that they could not do now. The shelter offers a privilege to the women that is called an "overnight pass." These passes allow the women to be gone overnight from the shelter while still retaining their room in the shelter. Women are allowed to take one overnight pass a week. If a woman does not complete chores, meet goals, or follow the shelter's rules and is given a contract or a special chore, she is ineligible for a period of time to take an overnight pass. Unauthorized overnights can lead to being asked to leave the shelter. The shelter's log noted numerous disagreements between women and staff when the women were told they had lost overnight privileges. Some women would talk about risking a contract or dealing with the consequences to take an overnight that was particularly important to them, even if it was not approved. Seven women discussed overnights during their interview. Three women who took overnights did so periodically or irregularly. They saved the overnights up so that they could be gone from the shelter for an entire weekend. Three of the women regularly took overnights and engaged in leisure activities or experiences during these times. Activities included staying at a friend's house, going to a show, going to a bar, bowling, seeing strippers, dancing, etc. Discussion In the present study, leisure or the activities the women described, created positive feelings such as being relaxed, feeling good, or being able to be themselves, but for two of the women leisure did not create positive feelings. Although leisure was a positive experience for most of the women in the present study, leisure also caused problems for the women before they lived in the shelter and while they were in the shelter. Prior to the women's interviews, an advocate from the shelter told the researcher that most of the women she sees do not know how to use their time constructively. She specifically mentioned drinking and the abuse of overnight privileges as examples of unconstructive use of time. The women primarily said that leisure did not cause trouble for them in the shelter, but the log and staff comments indicated that it had. Indeed, some of the women received write-ups and verbal reprimands that could be related to the use of leisure. The woman may not have recognized it was leisure experiences that were creating problems, or did not feel that the consequences for their behaviors were extremely significant in the course of their lives. It could also be that the women were reluctant to share with the researcher what might have been grounds, like drug or alcohol abuse, for fear of eviction. The idea, that leisure can be both a positive and a negative influence in the lives of women who are homeless, has not previously been studied. The present study does, however, support Shaw's (1994) leisure framework that noted that leisure might be both positive and negative. The women also described changes that had happened in their lives as a result of living in a shelter, and their perceptions of the constraints that they faced in relation to their leisure. Despite living with what the researcher perceived as numerous structural and societal constraints or restrictions, the women did not perceive that their leisure was overly constrained. Lack of money was mentioned as a constraint, but it still did not keep the women from engaging in activities that they enjoyed or that helped them relax. In one case money was cited as the constraint for a "dream wish" cruise, and in another for a trip that a woman said she would not have really taken even when she had money. These results seem to support the research of Dattilo, J., Dattilo, A., Samdahl, and Kleiber (1994) who found that despite poverty or limited income, women were not prevented from having pleasurable experiences. The results also support the work of Samdahl and Jekubovich (1997) and Kay and Jackson (1991) who reported that lack of money may alter leisure options rather than preventing leisure altogether, and that some activities like watching TV, reading, visiting with a friend, etc. were not effected by financial constraints. The present study seemed to lend support to the work of Arnold (1997), which found that women from non-dominant groups reported few constraints to their leisure.

3 Drawing upon the conceptualization of leisure as resistance, leisure is thought to have the potential to help resist or challenge societally imposed constraints or roles. Freysinger and Flannery (1992) noted that leisure may be a part of life where women are relatively free to create space so they can express who they are, step outside ascribed roles, and challenge or resist being who others say they should be. The bulk of the leisure literature has dealt with women resisting traditional gender roles (Shaw, 1997). Shaw thought that resistance could also apply to other concepts like ageism, racism, sexuality, etc. Roles or concepts not mentioned as possibilities by Shaw were the roles of resident in a homeless shelter or a person who is homeless. Fogel (1997) wrote about the role of "resident". She felt that role was spelled out in shelter rules, shelter structure, and staff expectations. In the present study, overnight stays outside of the shelter or getting away from the shelter on weekends afforded the women a chance to relax, laugh, and just be themselves. For the short periods of time when the women were dancing, watching strippers, talking with friends in the community, or playing with children in the park, they were not residents of a homeless shelter, but mothers, girlfriends, wives, daughters, friends, or women who were doing what they wanted to do or enjoyed. The act of engaging in enjoyable activities, in and of itself, may be perceived as resistance to what shelter staff and society as a whole view as appropriate for women who are homeless. For some women, however, the opportunity to be away from the shelter helped them be able to remain in the shelter with its rules, chores, and obligations. Leisure for women who are homeless may not make them free from obligations or roles, but it may provide space for enjoyable activities, even if only sporadically. References Arnold, M. (1997). The Relationship of Gender, Race, and Social Class to Leisure Constraints. Unpublished Dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Banyard, V., & Graham-Bermann, S. (1995). Building an empowerment policy paradigm: Self-reported strengths of homeless mothers. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 65, Banyard, V. (1995). "Taking another route": Daily survival narratives from mothers who are homeless. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23, Dattilo, J., Dattilo, A., Samdahl, D., & Kleiber, D. (1994). Leisure orientations and self-esteem in women with low incomes who are overweight. Journal of Leisure Research, 26, Dawson, D., & Harrington, M. (1996). "For the most part, it's not fun and games." Homelessness and recreation. Loisir et Societe /Society and Leisure, 79, Fogel, S. (1997). Moving along: An exploratory study of homeless women with children using a transitional housing program. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 24, Freysinger, V., & Flannery, D. (1992). Women's leisure: Affiliation, self-determination, empowerment and resistance? Loisir et Societe / Society and Leisure, 15, Grimm, K., & Maldonado, J. (1995). No home of her own: Gender and homelessness. Women & Environments, 14, Harrington, M., & Dawson, D. (1997). Recreation as empowerment for homeless people living in shelters. Journal of Leisurability, 24, Kay, T., & Jackson, G. (1991). Leisure despite constraint: The impact of leisure constraints and leisure participation. Journal of Leisure Research, 23, Kelly, J. R. (1983). Leisure styles: A hidden core. Leisure Sciences, 5, Klitzing, S., & Morris, L. (2001, October 3-6). Women who are homeless and traditional definitions of leisure. Paper presented at the Leisure Research Symposium, Denver, CO. Milburn, N., & D'Ercole, A. (1991). Homeless women: Moving toward a comprehensive model. American Psychologist, 46, Samdahl, D., & Jekubovich, N. (1997). A critique of leisure constraints: Comparative analyses and understandings. Journal of Leisure Research, 29, Shaw, S. (1994). Gender, leisure, and constraint: Towards a framework for the analysis of women's leisure. Journal of Leisure Research, 26, Shaw, S. (1997, April). Incorporating gender: Feminist approaches to the study of leisure. Paper presented at the Creation and Consumption of Leisure in Urban Africa, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Thrasher, S., & Mowbray, C. (1995). A strengths perspective: An ethnographic study of homeless women with children. Health & Social Work, 20, Williams, J. (1996). Geography of the homeless shelter: Staff surveillance and resident resistance. Urban Anthropology, 25, Sandra Wolf Klitzing, School of Klneslology and Recreation, Illinois State University, Campus Box 5121, Normal, Illinois, 61790, U.S.A.; Phone: (309) ; slklltz@ilstu.edu

4 ABSTRACTS of Papers Presented at the Tenth Canadian Congress on Leisure Research May 22-25,2002 Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta Abstracts compiled and edited by Edgar L. Jackson CCLR-10 Programme Committee Karen Fox Ed Jackson Gordon Walker Copyright 2002 Canadian Association for

5 The Canadian Congress on Leisure Research is held under the auspices of the Canadian Association for Leisure Studies Le congres canadien de la recherche en loisir Se tient sous les auspices de L'association canadienne d'etudes en loisir BOARD OF DIRECTORS / CONSEIL D'ADMINISTRATION President / President Susan Markham-Starr Acadia University Treasurer / Tresorier Robert Soubrier Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres Past President / President-sortant Edgar L. Jackson University of Alberta Secretary / Secretaire Linda Caldwell Pennsylvania State University Directors / Directeurs Wendy Frisby, University of British Columbia Tom Hinch, University of Alberta Peggy Hutchison, Brock University Jennifer Mactavish, University of Manitoba Lisa Ostiguy, Concordia University Stephane Perrault, Universite du Quebec d Trois-Rivieres Jerry Singleton, Dalhousie University Bryan Smale, University of Waterloo Paul Wilkinson, York University