Women and Housing: An International Analysis

This collection is concerned with exploring the housing circumstances of women in developed and emerging societies in Europe, USA and East Asia, at a time of substantial economic and social change. Its focus is on the interface between housing and gender and how this socially constructed relationship manifests and transforms over time and space. Housing systems and opportunities are embedded within structured and institutionalised relations of power which are gendered. For example, in many countries the wider context of housing provision has been heavily influenced by attitudes surrounding the 'male breadwinner model' whereby the male wage-earner provides for a dependent wife and children, supported by the notion of a "family wage."These and other perceptions reflect the structured and institutionalised relations of power which permeate the policy process and the wider world, the nature and dynamics of which are culturally contingent as shown by the contributions to this collection. Each contribution considers the historically and geographically specific relations of power and the connection and intersection between the social relations of gender and other culturally relevant forms of social division such as ethnicity, class, age, with housing.The chapters go on to identify the ways in which women's housing opportunities have been constrained or enhanced, using empirical data on women's labour market participation, wealth distribution, family formation and education. The book concludes with a focus on women's housing opportunities and circumstances and considers potential threats and barriers to women's housing access and security.