Using data gathered from 18 interviews with women who have developed arthritic illnesses we illustrate how becoming a chronically ill woman is a geographically uneven process. By examining changes in the spatial configuration of everyday life, performances of the ill female self in places, and relations with places of life important to these women, such as the health care clinic and workplace, we show how women's capacities to struggle effectively for enabling identities are challenged. Further, we argue that embodying illness involves women and others, including doctors, assigning meanings to their changing material, lived and represented places in the world.