Feminist theory perspectives on homelessness and escorting
Explore how feminist theory illuminates the systemic issues behind homelessness and escorting, challenging conventional views and focusing on power, inequality, and patriarchy.
Understanding systemic inequalities
Feminist theory focuses on how systems of power and inequality shape the lives of women, particularly in relation to patriarchy and economic structures. Instead of viewing experiences like mine as isolated or purely individual, feminist theory asks us to look at the bigger picture. It highlights how social systems create unequal access to resources, safety, and opportunity, especially for women in vulnerable situations (Harding & Hamilton, 2009).
Gendered experiences and survival strategies
Through this lens, my experience as a homeless woman becomes easier to understand, not because it was simple, but because it was structured. The options available to me were limited in ways that were directly tied to gender. On the street, my body was not just my own. It became something that was constantly evaluated, targeted, and, in many ways, commodified. Escorting was not about empowerment in the way it is sometimes debated in theory. For me, it was about survival in a system where women’s bodies often become one of the only resources they can leverage when everything else is gone.
Challenging societal judgment and stigma
Feminist theory also draws attention to how society responds to women in these situations. There is a strong tendency to judge rather than understand. Women who engage in sex work, especially while homeless, are often labeled as irresponsible, immoral, or deviant, without any real consideration of the structural conditions that led them there. This reflects a broader pattern within patriarchal systems.
Reframing the narrative: from choice to condition
Feminist theory helps shift the question from “Why did she make that choice?” to “What conditions made that choice one of the only options?” That shift is critical when trying to understand homelessness and escorting through a gendered lens. At its core, feminist theory examines how power, inequality, and patriarchy shape women’s lives. When applied to homelessness, it becomes clear that women are not simply “individuals without housing,” but are navigating systems structured by gendered inequality. Research shows that women experiencing homelessness face heightened vulnerability to violence, fewer economic opportunities, and are often constrained by caregiving roles and social expectations, all of which shape their pathways into and experiences of homelessness (Bretherton, 2020; O’Brien, 2022). This creates a fundamentally different experience than men’s homelessness, where safety becomes a constant concern and survival requires adaptive, often gendered strategies.
Within this context, escorting, often described in research as “survival sex,” is better understood through a feminist framework. Rather than framing it as a purely individual or moral decision, feminist theory highlights how structural inequalities shape these outcomes. Studies show that women experiencing homelessness are more likely to engage in survival sex due to limited access to housing, employment, and safety, as well as increased exposure to violence and instability (Duff et al., 2011; Watson, 2018). When options are constrained by poverty, gendered vulnerability, and social exclusion, women may rely on the limited resources available to them, including their bodies, as a means of survival (Harding & Hamilton, 2009; Flowers, 2010). This does not suggest empowerment or free choice, but rather reflects decisions made within structurally restricted conditions.
Feminist theory also helps explain why stigma surrounding escorting is both intense and deeply gendered. Women who engage in survival sex are not only judged for the act itself, but for violating dominant expectations of femininity, such as being morally pure, sexually controlled, and socially respectable. Research shows that women experiencing homelessness are often constructed as deviant, irresponsible, or morally deficient, while the structural conditions that shape their circumstances are largely ignored (Turrell, 2025; O’Brien, 2022). This stigma operates as a form of social control, reinforcing gender norms by punishing women who fall outside of them.
The consequences of this stigma are not just social, but material. It shapes how women are treated by institutions, including healthcare providers, social services, and law enforcement. Stigma has been shown to limit access to essential resources such as housing, healthcare, and support services, further entrenching cycles of marginalization and inequality (Turrell, 2025; Pampel & Stegmaier, 2020). Feminist perspectives emphasize that stigma is not simply about individual attitudes, but is embedded in broader systems of power that maintain inequality by individualizing blame rather than addressing structural causes.
Ultimately, feminist theory reveals that homelessness and escorting cannot be understood as isolated individual behaviors. They are shaped by broader systems of gender inequality, economic marginalization, and social control. Sociological perspectives on deviance further reinforce that what is considered “deviant” behavior is socially constructed and tied to power and labeling processes (Gibbs & Erickson, 1975; Bogdan & Taylor, 1987). From this perspective, my own concept of outstitutionalization helps explain how individuals who exist outside traditional institutions are forced to develop alternative systems of survival, language, and social organization in response to exclusion (Christensen, 2026). Rather than being integrated into supportive structures, they are pushed into spaces where survival depends on navigating risk, stigma, and limited resources.
Understanding homelessness and survival sex through outstitutionalization shifts the focus away from individual blame and toward the structural conditions that produce these realities. It highlights how women are not simply making choices in a vacuum, but are responding to systems that have already positioned them outside of stability, safety, and support. This perspective challenges dominant narratives and calls for a deeper examination of inequality, responsibility, and what meaningful support for women in these situations should actually look like.
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