LIFE HISTORIES OF WOMEN LIVING PERMANENTLY IN A SITUATION OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION

This article presents some of the ethnographic fieldwork we have carried out in a number of the Generalitat Valenciana's Specialist Social Services Centres for women. The aim was to discover what underlying types of violence and social exclusion factors figure in the life histories of institutionalized women. The research methodology used was qualitative in nature, consisting of participant observation and informal and biographical interviews which, together with personal documents and social reports, enabled us to compile 15 life histories. In this investigation, however, the only cases analysed were those of the four women living permanently in a situation of social exclusion. As regards the results, it was found that the life trajectories analysed had various underlying social exclusion factors, but also significant gender-specific factors such as intrafamily violence and gender-based violence against women.