This section will discuss meanmgs of home as perceived by women parenting alone. The first part assesses the literature balanced by what the women said and the second part examines the views of some of the women within a framework of four key signifiers which reflect the many dimensions of 'home'.
important to the quality of life" (452). Well-being is generally achieved when a person has control over their life and
can make the choices they need to make. It also encompasses all parts of a person; the physical, mental, emotional
Kris
and acknowledgment of the differing perceptions that there might be between men and women or indeed among women. Of what has been written, Saunders ( 1 9 9 1) , Munro and Madigan ( 1 99 1 ) , Tomas and Dittmar ( 1 995), Dupuis and Thorns ( 1 995) and Watson and Austerberry ( 1 986) are key writers. Most feminist writing u ntil Watson and Austel'berl'Y, tended to focu s on home as a place of oppression. These authors opened up the concept as having many meanings both positive and negative.
Women as the main caregivers spend much of their lives at home. While they all have their own u nique perceptions, for the group of women who are part of this study their home is central to their existence. It is the structure around which they build and rebuild their lives. The meaning of home for this group of women 1S critical to any u nderstanding of their lives:
It means my survival If I had 10 sell my house that would be .. .! fhink it would be the beginning of me going down hill because I would be so depressed bJi the lac! that I could no/ provide a home/iJr myself and my child. I 'djust be distraught.
Lynne !v1..v hOllse is mJ) home .. .it ·s my cenTre because I 'm at home. It 's not enollgh for me Wjus! live in a house .. . any hOllse. 77wl 's wh.v this is so unsatisjactof'.v .. because I spend so much lime in it. It 's not like If1 go out at 8 0 'clock in the morning and come home at 7 () 'clock and don 'f see if and it distresses me when [feel that it 's not comfortable.
Maol'i women have a distinct perspective on housing as Violet Papal'Oa of Tuhoe/ Ngapuhi ( 1 994) explains:
\Ve see all Ma,wi \vomen as houses for all mankind, Each l1f u s exists because of a woman . I! is the woman that n ur tu res the growth within her .. . Thi s i s l1tlr first lwme '"Te Whare 0 Te Tanga!a". The shel ter that we offer makes a home spring from which I.1ne can be nlmrished physically, men tal ly, em,1tionally and spiri t u ally, Agai n i n the sense home i s not a buildi ng t hat one can ,1wn or place a monetary val ue u pon , i t is however an asset that one cheri shes f,1r one's l i fetime (2).
Their u nderstandings clearly identify the components of housing and acknowledge the importance of all aspects, for Maori the land or whcnua rather than a house, is home. The term furan<,?awacwac meaning a place to stand, an ancestral place of belonging, a place to which one returns is also part of a Maori concept of home, It also includes a spiritual component or wairua which involves both the physical
environment of the home and the emotional dimensions of attachment (Davey and Kearns: 1 994: 74). The Maori Women's Housing Research Project ( 1 99 1 ) gIves further clarification which supports the main argument of this chapter:
... home does not always constitute a building or a house, although for many Maori women it does. The location of home is often in the mind, heart and spirit. Quite often home is a landmark, significant or insignificant to others, but always known to the heart, mind and spirit that seeks it...This notion of home provides a stark contrast to the concept of 'homeownership' that epitomises the New Zealand dream. The individual basis of ownership, the capital investment and the realisable asset that can be sold when no longer required, represents almost the direct opposi te of the Maori concept of home ( 1 6, 1 7).
The government as directors of housing policy seem able to ignore the importance of factors other than the physical structure and financial aspects of a home. An exploration of the meaning of home is important as part of widening the parameters of what is meant by home, that is more than financial and central to any discussion of well-being. This is especially important in the current policy climate which sees financial assistance as being the solution to housing problems.
Janet Lake used the concept of warp and weft when describing the importance of an integrated approach to housing. Using this weaving analogy the physical house is the warp through which the context or the weft, the intangible interconnections created through the emotional work of women both within and without the home, is woven. This analogy is helpful in analysing the ways in which women weave their lives around an increasingly insecure warp. The context of their lives is what they weave. As the Personal Narratives Group ( 1 989) notes:
The word context literally means to weave together, to twine, to connect. This interrelatedness creates the webs of meaning within which humans act..it is a dynamic process through which the individual simultaneously shapes and is shaped by her environment ( I 9).
Another word that comes to mind is ecology - eco from the Greek oikos meaning house and logos meaning word or speech. Hence a more traditional meaning would
be the study of the relationship or interconnectedness between living things and
their environment; in this case the woman's home. Balbo's quilt, as discussed in a later chapter, which has been adapted by Kilgour ( 1 989:32) , is another useful model which helps explain the meaning of home for women.
Watson and Austerberry ( 1 986) discuss at some length the perceived difference between 'house' and 'home'. 'Home' is strongly linked with family, warmth, comfort and stability whereas 'house' is the physical structure alone. This is made even more clear when, as they point out, we talk about homelessness or houselessness. The latter is very clear whereas the former has much broader boundaries.
Thorns ( 1 993) describes housing as:
... meet[ing] a basic social need by providing a place of shelter .. [which] serves as a potential store of wealth as it has both a use value and an exchange value. It also provides a place of security where the individual feels at 'home' and enjoys both physical and psychological well-being (97).
But also:
More than three quarters of all subsistence, social life, leisure and recreation happens [in the home]. Above all people are produced there and endowed there with values and capacities which will determine most of the quality of their social life and government away from home (Stretton in Saunders: 1 991 : 1 77).
Women in this research identified a very clear differentiation between a 'house' and a 'home'. They gave 'house' meanings that were physical rather than emotional
eg; "warm and maintenance free". They attributed 'home' with intangible
connotations such as "friendly, comfortable, familiarity, peaceful and quiet and nurturing space"(interviews) . Dupuis and Thorns ( 1 995) call this "making a house into a home", the emotional work that women, in particular, do to make this difference.
The meaning of home has been noted by a number of authors as being different for each individual member of a household (Kilgour: 1 989, Madigan and Munro: 1 99 1 , Marcus: 1 995, Saunders: 1 989) . For a child, home may well represent their entire life, for a woman it is her workplace and her retreat and for a teenager a resented barrier (Kilgour: 1 989: 3 1 ) . How housing is viewed is tempered by gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, tenure, life stage, any disability and other health issues and income. As mentioned, it can also be viewed more negatively, as a site of oppression in terms of abuse. But as Dupuis and Thorns ( 1 995) note:
Although each strand may speak to some meanings of home, none in itself is sufficient to capture the complexity associated with meanings of home ( 1 ).
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What a home should provide is what has been identified as 'ontological security' which is described by Giddens, cited in Dupuis and Thorns ( 1 995) , as:
... a sense of confidence and trust in the world as it appears to be ... a security of being ... a deep psychological need for individuals in all societies ... Giddens sees the private realm as a place where peoples' basic security systems can be restored ( 3).
Dupuis and Thorns (ibid) refer to a pre-modern sense of ontological security (2), identified by Giddens as more consistent, unlike the modern world where this concept is constantly undermined by insecurity of tenure, financial instability and fragmented communities. Home is also a place of respite from an increasingly inconsistent world.
Ontological security IS not necessarily associated with the physical dwelling although a house can enhance this quality. It is a concept which is central to an understanding of what underlies women's ideas of the meanings of home. What is common to all the women in this study is an awareness and search for this component. The degree to which each woman was able to attain a measure of ontological security seemed directly associated with her socio-economic circumstances and, in the case of those who were separated, the situation both prior to and after separation. While home is a site for the consolidation of ontological security it is something which is accumulated over time. It is important to note that it is strongly linked to security of tenure and length of time spent in a particular dwelling. Ownership for the women in this study, seemed to provide the highest degree of ontological security. Certainly those women renting perceived ownership as being able to provide a high level of security.
The women's perceptions of 'home' as expressed to me, implied that their focus seemed to be on the 'meaning' of home on a conceptual level rather than related to what was currently happening in the home. During the interviews there was some confusion as to whether they were talking of what they would like as opposed to what they had and the boundaries between the two positions were sometimes unclear. As in Saunders ( 1 99 1 : 1 8 1 ) , women did not refer to their concept of home
as a place of work, although in terms of unpaid work it was and in some cases this included paid work, which indicates to me the overriding centrality of the home to all parts of a woman's life.
Saunders [ 1 995] identifies home as being much more than the place of unpaid work or where the labour power is reproduced:
... a home is at the hub of a whole complex of relationships and in many ways is the crucial medium through which society is structured. It is the crucible of the social system ... the nodal point of our society, the locale through which individual and society interact...the engine room of society (84,90) .
Saunders, has not discussed the more negative attributes of home and in not doing so denies feminist arguments that the home can also be a site of oppression (Saunders: 1 99 1 : 1 90) . Oppression in terms of violence, both physical and emotional, although not specifically identified had been present in the lives of a couple of the women in this research but unlike Saunders, this does not lead me to deny such realities when not mentioned. Home has a multiplicity of meanings for women, one of which may contain abusive experience (Baxter: 1 996, Madigan, Munro and Smith: 1 990, Watson and Austerberry: 1 986) . The following drawing dramatically illustrates some of the pain experienced by a child in response to a distressing home environment and her needs as a child. The words "holding me" are central to the meanings the woman implied:
FIG. 4.2 A woman7s memories of a hiding place which was a crucial retreat from painful family stress
Source: Marcus: 1 995: Plate 1
The women who had experienced home as a place of oppression and abuse indicated that this experience actually enhanced their appreciation of their present home, despite difficulties, as a place of empowerment, control and safety.
It is important to note that when discussing the concept of home and what it means, it is apparent that most of the words women use have no negative connotations. The strong, universally held understanding of home can prevent the discussion of more negative concepts of home, as illustrated in the drawing above, and this was evident in the interviews. Dupuis and Thorns ( 1 995) acknowledge:
... meanings of home can be contingent, diverse and even (sic) in nature [6]. In addition, Munro and Madigan ( 1 99 1 ) have noted:
.. .it should be recognised that the strength of the accepted ideology as to what constitutes a 'home' makes it very difficult for individuals to express contrary associations (30).
This research reinforces these comments. Exploring women's words and differentiating between their dream and society's concept of 'home', to find each women's distinctive perceptions, be those negative or positive, was difficult. But as Watson and Austerberry ( 1 986) have illustrated, women can draw a distinction between what they conceive of as home and the ideal even though they may not believe they have attained that ideal. This ambivalence is expressed by Anne who is well aware of the limited choices she has:
Anne ... and my girlfriend will come in and she 'l/ go 'oh god are you still here, it's loo cold and you should be leaving ', you know and you 're thinking god this is the place I 've decided to live in. So home to me is really important.
This point is also illustrated by Tomas and Dittmar ( 1 995) who identify two concepts of home in their research involving homeless women. The first one related to one group of women's expen'ences of 'home' and the second related to another group of women's unmet needs for housing (505) . They identify an "intimate link between the experience of housing and the meaning of home." In other words, you cannot describe a concept of 'home' as opposed to 'house' if you have no experience of what 'home' might be. The housed women were more able to conceive concepts of home than were the homeless women. Their conclusion was that:
... the assumption in the literature that 'home' is a meaningful experience which occurs over and above the safety and security of four walls and a roof is therefore not supported (505).
The homeless women's concept of housing relates to the safety and security of four walls and in these terms they did not see themselves as homeless and were therefore 'housed' according to their definition but not 'homed' according to the housed women's definition. The women in my study were able to articulate their experiences of 'home', even if this was historical, but also in some cases their unmet needs for housing, the difference being that all the women had experienced at some stage what was adequate housing.
WekerIe ( 1 989) , in a study of women's housing projects in Canada makes a very pertinent comment:
Where wl,men's gfl1UpS have u ndertaken to pmvide housi ng, their vision extends heyond shelter. They foc us (111 what housi ng wl1men's l ives rather than
viewing lh1using to be merely a rod over women's heads ( I ) .
Having explored some of the literature and understandings surrounding the meaning of home the next section will develop the analysis further by examining 'home' as perceived by the women interviewed as part of this research .