Housing Women

First Published in 2004. This edited collection presents a comprehensive examination of women’s relationship to housing as consumers of housing services and managers of those services. While much of the literature has portrayed women as passive recipients of housing services, Housing Women shows the very active role women have played in housing protest movements and in managerial roles. Diverse strands of women’s housing experiences are drawn together in discussion of key issues such as the meaning of ‘home’, access and participation, and educational, training and employment issues. The housing concerns of specific groups are looked at in detail. Throughout, the book is forward looking, considering the possibility of new housing forms which could challenge gender assumptions and be more attractive and useful for women. The contributors make policy recommendations necessary to the creation of affordable housing and employing and training agencies to ensure better equal opportunity policies. Presenting the work of leading researchers and practitioners in the field, this important volume will be of interest to students of women’s studies and housing as well as to practitioners working in housing associations and networks. 1. Introduction 2. Women and the Meaning of Home 3. Women and Owner Occupation in Britain: First the Prince then the Palace? 4. Women and Participation 5. Older Women and Housing - Prospects for the 1990s 6. Black Women and Housing 7. Young Women and Homelessness 8. The Struggle Has Never Simply Been About Bricks and Mortar: Lesbians' Experience of Housing 9. Snakes or Ladders? - Women and Equal Opportunities in Education and Training for Housing 10. Women Achievers in Housing: the Career Paths of Women Chief Housing Officers 11. Questioning the American Dream: Recent Housing Innovations in the United States 12. Innovative Housing in the UK and Europe 13. An Agenda for Action: Issues of Choice, Freedom and Control