Women’s Experience of Shame, Poverty and Gender: An Empirical Investigation

This chapter examines the interdependencies of shame, poverty and gender in different sociocultural contexts. Since women are particularly and persistently affected by poverty for a wide variety of reasons, this chapter presents two case studies from Germany and South Africa that illustrate to what extent and why women experience poverty as a reason to feel shame, the individual and cultural framework conditions relevant in this context, and which strategies the women developed in the course of their lives to cope with these experiences of shame. The data was collected through guided interviews. The results are presented and discussed. The chapter also offers classifications in current relevant research findings and identifies future research needs.