Resilience, Working-Class Poor and Death: The Complexities of being a "Strong Young Woman"

Autor/innen

  • Carmen Blonde Wayne State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v16i2.12907

Abstract

This autoethnography explores the relationships between the working class, resilience, health, and mortality in the United States. It combines personal experiences with empirical research to paint a picture of working-class American struggles within the individual and family context over time. By detailing the author’s personal experiences with growing up in a working-class family and coping with a close family death at a young age, the article highlights what numerical data in other research fails to capture. Statistics alone do not encompass the daily hassles, struggles, and traumas that working-class poor people encounter. Being a member of the working class plays a strong role in an individual’s health and their access to healthcare and shapes their experiences with death and grief. Through discussing the various ways American healthcare and government systems are failing the working-class poor, this autoethnography calls for more community advocacy and change to these systems so that quality healthcare is accessible for all.

 

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Veröffentlicht

2026-09-16

Ausgabe

Bd. 16 Nr. 2 (2026)

Rubrik

Articles

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