Susan Scott. All Our Sisters: Stories of Homeless Women in Canada.
Bell, Sandra
Susan Scott. All Our Sisters: Stories of Homeless Women in Canada.
Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2007. 210 pp. Notes. Photographs.
$26.95 sc.
Canada is one of the few countries of the Western world without a
social housing policy (16) and this book is about the effect such an
omission has on some Canadian women. This is a heartbreaking book, not
for the lighthearted, and it is not an easy read. It is mostly stories
from the lives of women living on the margins of Canadian society. Most
importantly, this is a book about the failure of our social services and
shelters to meet the needs of the most vulnerable Canadian women; it is
an indictment of homeless policies.
Two women, Doreen and Sheila, were Scott's"immediate
catalysts" for the book. Knowing these women, Scott maintains, made
her think about "what it means to be female and homeless in
Canada"(11). The book is a venue for women to tell their stories.
It is based on interviews with "sixty or so" women from
Vancouver to as far east as Ottawa, and the work was financed by a grant
from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Women from Quebec and the
Maritimes were not included, Scott tells us apologetically, because
"the money ran out" in Ottawa (13). Rather than approaching
women on the street for interviews, Scott made her connections with
women through shelters, drop-ins, and organizations where she
volunteered. Scott preferred this method because she wanted an
introduction, a way to provide women an opportunity to get to know who
she was before making a decision to talk to her. Where possible, the
women were contacted again for feedback on their stories.
There are ten substantive chapters in the book and each lays out
common problems experienced by homeless women. Each chapter begins with
a general discussion of an issue with sources for further information.
This is then followed by four or five stories from women telling how
they have experienced these issues. Chapter topics include housing
policy, violence, poor health and addictions, FASD, parenting, and
prostitution. Two chapters are devoted to groups particularly affected
by a number of these issues, Aboriginal women and the gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and trans community.
Beyond the women's stories, the Introduction and Conclusions
are important chapters because the former provides a conceptual
framework for interpreting and understanding the stories and the latter
offers a discussion of solutions, albeit far too brief. In the
Introduction, Scott provides an important conceptual refinement to
notions of "homeless" by separating it conceptually from
"living on the street." She explains that the women she talked
to do not necessarily live on the streets, rather they are homeless
because they are without a place to live that is secure "where they
can sleep unmolested, where their children are safe and their treasures
secure" (21). Many women are homeless in that they live with
violent partners whom they can not afford to leave, some are trapped by
a pimp or a dealer, some couch-surf from one relative or friend to
another, while others live in unsafe unhygienic buildings or abandoned
cars (15). Scott's telling of the women's stories is designed
to dispel three myths: that many women are on the streets by choice;
that there are very few homeless women in Canada; and that with the help
of social services, getting back on their feet is a fairly
straightforward matter. The stories in this book are from women fleeing
abuse and depredation that often began in their childhood, and they are
women who have lost everything, their possessions, their self-esteem,
and their children. For the most part they are invisible, hidden away
from public view. While official statistics indicate that 100,000
Canadians are without homes and 1.7 million live in inadequate living
conditions, we actually have no way of knowing how many women are living
with abusive partners, sleeping with landlords, or living in condemned
houses (23). Furthermore, once women are homeless, social services often
work against them as exemplified by the voice message of one
woman's mental health worker: "This is Wednesday. We are in a
meeting. Please call back next week" (57).
Thirty years ago, the most memorable and significant book I read as
an undergraduate Sociology student was W. E. Mann's Poverty and
Social Policy in Canada (1970). Scott's book is the twenty-first
century equivalent of this--it should be required reading in every
introductory sociology, women and gender studies, or social issues
course. It is a book that addresses a hidden issue in ways that are
impossible to ignore. Scott's writing is easy enough to read, but
reading the women's stories is emotionally difficult and
uncomfortable. Scott presents the women and their stories in a
respectful manner so that readers are not likely to come away with
feelings of pity, but, rather, feelings of shame--that we should live in
a country where women live under these conditions; feelings of
humiliation--that in spite of these conditions, somehow the women remain
optimistic that they can change their lives and, miraculously, some of
them have; feelings of sorrow--that for some women this has been their
life since childhood and that all they want is a chance to live with
dignity and be good mothers to their children. Ultimately, the book sets
the stage to perhaps accomplish the goal best stated by one of the
women, to "...make[s] people uncomfortable enough that they are
moved to act."
Sandra Bell
Department of Sociology and Criminology, Saint Mary's
University
