Compliance is Gendered: Struggling for Gender Self-Determination in a Hostile Economy

Abstract

This article addresses the economic marginalization of transgender populations, describing factors leading to poverty and criminalization. It examines how trans people are excluded from social services and face violence in the institutions where poor people are concentrated. It takes up feminist analysis of welfare programs and broadens the inquiry to suggest that the sex-segregation of the welfare state institutions and the criminal punishment system should be a target of feminist analysis.

Keywords: welfare, prison, jail, homeless shelter, transgender, race, class, gender