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During the event the PhD thesis and interview transcripts were welcomed into the Glasgow Women’s Library of ‘Hidden Women’s Histories.’ This was an important moment where the struggles, stigmatisation and historically devalued narratives of lone mothers in Glasgow’s schemes were recognised as an important record of Scottish working-class history.

“My PhD research has real personal significance. I’m working-class lone mum and researcher with roots in Easterhouse and several other multiply deprived Scottish housing schemes. I was brought up as one of five by my mum who was disabled. We experienced long periods of what I now recognise to be deep poverty. I also worked as homelessness services manager and community worker in Easterhouse for over fifteen years. I was motivated towards my PhD research to shine a light on the experiences of lone parents of the 1980s and 1990s - Women of my mother’s generation. I wanted to really get inside the realities of the systemic injustices experienced by women in Glasgow’s peripheral housing estates and understand the circumstances that shaped the trajectories of my family and those around us."

• The period between 1980 and 1990 saw a three-fold increase in lone mother-headed households in Easterhouse and their rate has since remained well above Glasgow average. The findings uncovered endemic levels of violence against women in Easterhouse. The major unexpected finding was that 90% of research participants entered into lone motherhood as a result of domestic abuse. The majority experienced repeated episodes of intimate partner violence in mid and later life and all experienced neighbourhood-based violence. Many of the participants in this study named their experiences as abuse for the first time during interviews. The event at GWL was an opportunity for older women to invite family members to learn about the struggles and experiences of mothers and grandmothers.

• The findings highlighted that those who entered into lone motherhood were often those most desperate to escape the most abusive situations. Yet, the vast majority of participants chose to remain in Easterhouse despite the risks of secondary abuse on account of the protection attached to ‘belonging’ and local connection support. Networks of female solidarity allowed women to ‘get by’ stages of active childrearing and literally kept many alive, with over half the group being prevented from suicide by close female network members. Over life course lone mothers drew on female networks to provide emotional, instrumental, financial and cathartic support. In later life, female networks took on new roles in helping older women make sense of lives characterised by adversity and intensive unpaid caring responsibilities. .

• A major shift happened during the 1990s when the women’s movement began to heed of the growing crisis of violence against women during the 1990s and situate refuge services within peripheral schemes. These situated supports coupled with the shift from municipal council house ownership to Community Controlled Housing and improvements to in-work benefits resulted in more women being empowered to consider lone motherhood as a viable option. Until the 1990s freedoms for women of the lowest social classes were substantially lagging in comparison to their sisters in less deprived parts of the UK. This was evident in the number of participants who struggled to access basic contraception and family planning advice as late as the 1990s, the prevalence of abuse as a common characteristic of heterosexual relationships and the extent of financial dependence.

Takeaway Messages

• The life-course histories of low-income lone mothers in Glasgow has been part of Scotland’s hidden and suppressed history

• Post-policy and planning decisions had disastrous implications for the lives of women and girls who often became marooned on geographically isolated super housing estates with few public services.

• Women in Glasgow’s schemes faced unique gendered challenges relating to cultures of male hegemony and the failure of policy measures to improve persistent poverty and deprivation

• Older women in Glasgow’s schemes have become part of an unpaid caring workforce firefighting effects of municipal neglect and entrenched health inequalities upon family members. All but one research participant carried out multi-facing ‘low pay, no pay’ labours of care in later life, contributing to the invisible economy of female care. The research showed that those with greatest caring responsibilities experienced the worst economic outcomes by later life.

Recommendations

• Future regenerative interventions require recognition of the generational effects of systemic injustice and authentic valuing of lived experience expertise in shaping future housing and community-based initiatives.

• Participants explained that peer-to-peer relationships were essential for surviving lives punctuated by poverty-related trauma. Greater funded support for grassroots organizations that focus on activities relating to community capacity building and fostering connection

• Future policymaking should consider the impact of multiple caring responsibilities on older women’s financial resilience. Intensive caring roles impact the ability to accumulate ‘fallback’ resources to mitigate against financial crisis

• The sharing of suppressed narratives in a supportive environment was reported to be a useful and cathartic way for older women to make sense of lives characterised by trauma and structural oppression. Community-development practitioners might consider broadening opportunities for female elders in deprived neighbourhoods to pass on wisdom and contribute towards working-class histories. This may involve training community members in oral-history interviewing skills and creating more safe women-only spaces where dominant discourses can be safely challenged and explored.

Read the full thesis here.