Charity calls for gender equality to be enshrined in decision-making.
Scottish housing policy is ignoring the specific needs of women, according to a new report.
Research for gender equality charity Engender found that women are almost entirely absent from briefings, research, and action plans concerning housing and homelessness.
The report highlights that while women in Scotland make up the majority of lone parents and carers, are far more likely to be living in poverty, and spend a far higher proportion of their income on accommodation than men, they are not represented in the discourse around housing.
It goes on to state that homelessness policy is predominantly aimed at men, meaning that issues faced by homeless women such as hiding their homelessness for fear of losing children, and entering or re-entering abusive housing situations are often ignored.
Engender is now calling on the Scottish Government to implement equality-based housing policies in line with international human rights obligations and the government’s own commitment to housing rights.
Emma Ritch, the charity’s director, said: “Home is something many of us take for granted, but for many women a safe and secure home is out of reach, with systems failing to consider their needs. This report shows the need to consider equality at every aspect of policy-making; when research only focuses on men’s experiences of housing precarity and homelessness, the resulting policy will not work for women.
“While there is rightly concern about the numbers children living without safe and secure homes, too often these figures fail to take into account that behind child poverty, there is most often women’s poverty as well. Homeless people in Scotland are already made to feel invisible, and the lack of gendered policy means that for women without secure housing, this is invisibility squared.
“We’re pleased that the Scottish Government has already made moves to redress the gender imbalance at the heart of housing policy, but much more needs to be done to ensure that women’s lives are no longer ignored.”
Previous research has found that domestic abuse is a major cause of homelessness for women in Scotland, with women forced to make an impossible choice between abuse and leaving their home.
Scottish Women’s Aid CEO Marsha Scott said: “I’m sure many of us struggle to imagine what women face in trying to manage leaving an abuser to seek safety for themselves and their children. To add facing homelessness to that scenario makes a series of impossible choices even more difficult.
“A lack of gendered policy means that the existing inequalities experienced by women are repeated and reinforced, with a huge impact on their finances, health and wellbeing. Unless housing and homelessness policy is gendered, we are never going to develop responses that afford women and children safety, hold perpetrators to account and respond appropriately to domestic abuse.
“We welcome this report, and stand with Engender in calling for the experiences of women to be listened to and acted on.”
