Date of Award
5-2007
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Legacy Department
Applied Sociology
Committee Chair/Advisor
Mobley, Catherine
Abstract
This thesis explores the identity talk strategies used by sheltered homeless women to navigate their personal identity in the midst of experiencing a deeply stigmatized social identity. Based on field observation and twenty qualitative interviews with sheltered homeless women at a Midwestern homeless shelter, this analysis examines the identity talk strategies used by sheltered women to disavow stigmatized social identities and to restore cognitive congruence. Using the identity talk framework of Snow and Anderson (1987), three categories of identity talk are explored: distancing, embracement, and fictive storytelling. Findings suggest that sheltered homeless women actively utilize these identity talk strategies to purposefully disavow stigmatized identities; however, sheltered homeless women utilize these identity talk strategies in divergent ways.
Recommended Citation
Deward, Sarah, "Identity Talk Strategies of Sheltered Homeless Women" (2007). All Theses. 90.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/90