From integration to social exclusion: three life stories of institutionalized women

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analise the processes of social exclusion of institutionalised women in Valencia’s women’s protection centres from their point of view. The general strategy and the most important research techniques used have been qualitative. Thus, through participant observation, social reports, personal documents and informal interviews, 15 life histories have been gathered. Given that all ended in a situation of social exclusion/institutionalisation, they have bhave been classified according to their point of departure and from a gender perspective (that is, taking into account both the productive and reproductive sphere). Three initiate their trajectories at a point of social integration, eight in a situation of vulnerability, and four have permanently experienced a situation of social exclusion. However, here we shall only analyse the first group. With respect to the results, it must be highlighted that in the life histories analysed underlie different gender-specific social exclusion factors, such as: gender roles, the sexual division of labour, economic dependence, violence towards women, the lack of institutional support and institutional violence outright. All of which add to the classic factors of social exclusion present in the literature, which affect both men and women.