Ferraro works as a board member at the Women's Street Support Center, but her work with women's shelters extends back to her graduate student days. Her doctoral dissertation was a study of how to start and run a successful shelter. Because of a growing awareness of feminism in the 1970s, Ferraro says there was a growth boom of shelters. After the 1970s, many of the shelters were co-opted into mental health agencies because of the need for government funding. Reliance on state and federal funds caused shelter operators to conform to regulations that worked against empowerment.
Somebody tells the women what to do and who to be.
I'm interested in how shelters can be more proactive in terms of promoting self-determination. Ferraro's activism also affects her research. She focuses on certain groups of people. Advocacy work with homeless people, prostitutes, and other women at the Women's Street Support Center keeps her sharply aware of all the different women who are victims of violence. It doesn't matter whether it's called masochism or codependency.