Discourses of Space and Mobility

Many of the women in this study had little control of space or access to the means to seek out spaces of their own. Andrea's husband kept a tight leash on her, forbidding her to have visitors in the home when he was not present. Her mobility was thus seriously constricted and living a lonely life of confinement, she sometimes kept her youngest daughter out of school to keep her company. Andrea's husband clearly held an authoritative power over her and tried to control not only her mobility and actions, but her thinking.

Many of the families also had to rely on public transportation since they didn't have a reliable vehicle. Taking the bus, as Natalie outlined, was time consuming and difficult to coordinate with her sons' school schedules.

The range of work options for the women was very restricted due to their low level of formal education. Many of the jobs were primarily in the service industry such as dishwasher and chamber maid. These jobs provided little opportunity for the women to interact with the public or to expand their social network beyond their neighbourhood.

Another issue related to the discourse of space is the confinement of having homes in a low–income neighbourhood where property lots were small and homes were built in close proximity to each other, therefore limiting their privacy. Further, the noise level was often very high with so many people living close together and having lots of children in these homes.