My PhD explores issues and experiences of women’s poverty from a life-history perspective. It aims to capture their narratives through biographical interviews and personal reflective journalling to develop a fuller understanding of the ways their lives are constrained and shaped by their poverty experience, but also the complex and multiple ways they may transcend typical understandings of poverty as a life limiting phenomenon. It will explore the context-based actuality of women’s lives and understand the importance of emotions and decision-making at transition moments or life junctures beyond deficit language terms.
By drawing upon a range of literature relating to women’s poverty; the material, psychosocial, policy and discursive dimensions, and by drawing upon a body of literature to understand the importance and complexity of emotional decision-making, this research will capture and emphasise the agency of women with personal histories of poverty.
