Female-Headed Households and Their Nuanced Meanings of Housing in Kathrada Park, Johannesburg

In South Africa and globally, families have undergone social and economic transformation owing to globalisation, apartheid, and migration, among other factors. Female-headed households (FHHs) have become a common permutation of African families. While urbanisation has presented multiple social and economic opportunities for women, a nexus of structural constraints still presents challenges for many FHHs from accessing social welfare services such as housing. Informed by a social exclusion lens, this qualitative study employed an exploratory design to collect and analyse data from eight heads of FHHs in a low-income community in Johannesburg to explore the different nuanced meanings that FHHs attach to housing. Participants were selected through snowball sampling, and one-on-one semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, which were transcribed verbatim. A thematic content analysis found that FHHs attach explicit and nuanced meanings to housing. Although located in a low-income community, their housing gives them a sense of self-worth and dignity, offers them some level of safety and security for their children, and is conveniently located for their livelihood. Among others, this study recommends more social work research that focuses on the intersection of feminisation, housing, and FHHs. More importantly, the authors argue that the meaning of housing in relation to the poor and vulnerable such as FHHs is relevant to social work as a discipline that is informed by human rights and social justice, because housing is key to the politics of safety, security, and belonging.