The Women are the Glue
A note on this 4-part series “Inside Discrimination”:
This is the fourth post in a collaborative series where equality champions across the globe who are at the dawn of their careers describe the mechanics of inequality through their lived experience.
by Sophie Odgers
When Brenda started working at Rebel Nell, she was living at COTS (the Coalition on Temporary Shelter), in Detroit’s now-gentrified Midtown neighbourhood.
When you visit the COTS homepage, Brenda’s face and those of her 3 children smile back at you. Their expressions, although all different, compliment each other as a distinct unit or team.
Brenda smiles a lot and speaks calmly and perceptively.
As she explained to me, many intersecting factors led to her family’s residence at COTS—the most immediate being access to childcare. For many in a single-parent family, a broken-down car, scramble to find affordable childcare or break-up of a relationship can trigger the loss of a job, home, and eventually lead to residence at similar facilities across the country.
*original photography by Sophie Odgers
COTS is “committed to serving the most vulnerable members of the Detroit community,” and have been providing temporary housing predominantly for women and children across the Greater Detroit area since 1982.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, black folks represent 13% of the American population and 40% of the homeless American population, and on any given night 1,769 people across Detroit are sleeping in shelters or on the street.
*original photography by Sophie Odgers
In his book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond breaks down the intricacies of institutional policy and their systemically disproportionate effect on black women and black mothers, in particular. Through the lens of eviction practices and how they perpetuate poverty, he gives insight into the lives of those dealing with an incredibly flawed system.
*original photography by Sophie Odgers
For some, fighting to overcome this system can seem like a never-ending battle.
But, in a warehouse in Detroit hosting start-ups for women and minority entrepreneurs, there is a network of creators helping each other fight that battle.
*original photography by Sophie Odgers
Rebel Nell is a jewelry company that employs, supports, and empowers women who have been living at shelters across Detroit. Their end-goal is to facilitate the growth of their employees through the sale of jewelry online, and in stores and craft markets across the United States. “One hand feeds the other,” says founder, Amy Peterson.
*original photography by Sophie Odgers
Each piece of jewelry is chosen from a scrap of graffiti that is treated, pressed and coated with a layer of resin. Once the artists have perfected the creative process for various styles of earrings, necklaces and bracelets, they personalize their pieces—placing a unique part of themselves into their work.
*original photography by Sophie Odgers
Brenda’s personalized piece was a treble clef, representative of her renewed interest in music. This was an area of interest, she explained, that she was able to explore after having the pressure of childcare taken off. (Her son spends time in the workshop, as do other children, playing and bothering their mothers on and off throughout the day.)
*original photography by Sophie Odgers
Looking back on my experiences in Detroit, I can draw similarities between what Brenda shared with me and what some women in Canada are struggling to overcome.
I think we, as Canadians, can sometimes view ourselves with a subtle moral superiority to our neighbours to the south, stemming from the fact that we didn’t have institutionalized slavery on the same mass scale as the US (although it did exist in Canada.)
However, as I was writing this this piece, the day after Canada day, I was reflecting on what July 1 truly marks - the birth of the Canadian nation and the genocide of Indigenous peoples already existing here.
A genocide that, to this day disproportionately affects one group the most: mothers, women and girls.
Further reading
Sophie Odgers
(she/her)
With a journalism background, Sophie finds it important to be contributing to greater social cohesion and the betterment of the world around her.
She has always been passionate about stories that underline the complex institutional inequality that exists around us, both structurally and socially. Focusing on the structural is what brought her here.