But you don't live on the streets, you survive:

a phenomenological-existential understanding of women living on the streets

Abstract

Surviving on the street is permeated by countless exposures that involve factors beyond individual specificities, due to the social, historical, cultural and political intertwining. Women who live on the streets are a smaller group when compared to men, but they are the ones most affected by oppression, based on a set of restrictions, subjugation and invisibility. The aim of this study is to understand the experiences of women who live on the streets. The methodology used was a qualitative approach, of the bibliographical, descriptive and exploratory type, whose theoretical analysis was based on the phenomenological-existential perspective. As an inclusion criterion, we approached studies on the experiences of homeless women, prioritizing scientific productions from 2015 to 2023. The main results show that the gender condition is revealed in the power relations implied in a patriarchal hierarchical matrix, which have a direct impact on women's ways of living; women are subjected to violence in their lives prior to the context of the streets, which is more explicit in the street condition, with physical, sexual and psychological violence standing out. The conclusion is that there is a need to implement public policies aimed at homeless women and the production of care in health services, pointing to the challenge of psychology professionals working in social assistance networks.