"To be trans is to be nowhere" : A transfeminist study on attitudes towards trans women in Swedish women's shelters

The debate and research on trans in feminist studies has increased in recent years. While it is still a minor discussion in comparison to other topics in the field, it demonstrates the importance of the subject. Through out history, feminist separatist spaces has been criticized for being transphobic by trans activists, in relation to trans women's experiences of these spaces. Discriminating attitudes are still influencing the shaping of feminist spaces, such as women's shelters. This is a study of attitudes towards trans women in women's shelters. I have an intersectional transfeminist perspective. Results show that the problem is a lack of knowledge in trans questions and issues amongst the workers. My interview partners are asking to be educated in the subject. They problematize the way that the issue is systematicly overidden and how responsibility is placed in bigger organizations that have influence and power over smaller ones. Through the course of the study, as well as through my own feminist work, I feel that there is a great will for things to change amongst the younger generations of women's shelters workers, but also a resistance against that will, in older generations.