17.

18.

DESCRIPTION 

• Written by two leading authorities on the subject, this book tackles the problems of housing, homelessness, and women in the family, from a feminist perspective. It explores how housing helps to reproduce women's role within the family, both today and historically. It looks at the way British society in particular (and western society in general) defines and creates housing 'needs'. It discusses the way housing is provided and allocated to exclude specific forms of household, and describes the experiences of a particular group - single women - upon whom these processes have profound impact.

HOUSING AND EMANCIPATION

1. Goals:

• Provide an overview of the historical development in housing in the Netherlands and the current situation, show the link with emancipation and suggest some changes.

2. Author and partners:

(Liesbeth Bloeme, Wilma Greter, Marijke van Schendel et Marijke Storm)

• The department of Housing of the Dutch Ministery of Housing, Spatial planning and Environment asked the Univesity of Amsterdam to carry out this survey.

3. Date and duration of the action:

4.  origin of the information

Contactt - correspondent address:

Marijke van Schendelen

à l'université d'Amsterdam/University of Amsterdam

tel: (31-20) 5254041 fax: (31-20) 5254041

5. File writer:

Liesbeth Ottes /SEIROV/NIROV)

DESCRIPTION 

• Womenvoice their criticism on the national housing policy in the Netherlands, arguing that it focuses only on nuclear families. The composition of households in the Netherlands has dramatically changed over the past decades, the amount of single households is booming, as is the tendency to co-house in a broad variety of ways.

The book "VERSTEEND BELEID" shows that housing policy can support emancipation, and that emancipation can in turn be an incentive for future housing policies. What will be the houses most sought after in an emancipated society? What will be the conditions enabling men and women to combine paid labour and the daily responsabilities in the household? What is the best housing design?

This book also offers an overview of the Dutch and foreign literature on housing and emancipation, proposes ideas for the future, and expresses the hope that in future housing will favour equal opportunities for all. The text is preceeded by a study in trend and a bibliography.

Versteend beleid (Housing in an Emancipated Society), Amsterdam, SUA, 1988

FLEXIBLE HOUSING

An Information Brochure

DESCRIPTION 

An information brochure published bu national department of Housing. It concerns all the aspects of flexible housing.

Changing social values, behaviour and relations in society affect aspirations concerning living conditions.

The minister is concerned with quality of housing. Flexible houses can be adapted to the needs of various categories of people, acquiring thus a long term quality. By publishing and distributing this information, yje ministry wants to support the municipalities providing decent housing for all.

VAC - Women Advisory Committee on Housing

1. Goals:

• The organisation offers to women the opportunity to participate, on a local, regional and even national level, in all kinds of activities promoting the quality of housing from the point of view of women.

2. Author and partners:

3. Date and duration of the action:

• This organisation was created just after the Second World War. Today, it includes more than 2000 women operating in all kinds of activities.

4. origin of the information

Contact  - correspondent address:

VAC (Vrouwen Advies Commissie voor de Woningbouw)

Faustdreef 187 NL 3561 LG Utrecht

tel : (31-30) 610475 fax: (31-30) 661001

5. File writer:

Liesbeth Ottes (SEIROV/NIROV)

DESCRIPTION 

• In about 250 municipalities of the Netherlands a Women's Advisory Committee on Housing is participating in decision making on housing. These committees are composed of as many as 10 to 15 women. It is often decided that all plans for housing have to be reviewed by the VAC before they can be carried out.

Local committees are supported by a regional steering committee. Regional committees are all represented in the general steering committee of the Foundation National Contact of the VAC, which functions on a national level.

The national contact distributes information to the members of the local VAC through a newsletter and schooling activities. Besides, it is also concerned with the quality of housing on national level.

CANADIAN WOMEN'S HOUSING PROJECTS

DESCRIPTION (English)

• Over the past ten years, there has been an unprecedented increase in non-profit housing projects in Canada, and particularly in those targeted on women. This survey starts at the beginning of the 1980s, when in the whole country there were only 10 housing units specifically designed for households headed by women.

It examines 56 housing units throughout Canada which were designed either by or for women. The collected information is presented in alphabetical order in three different sections (transitional housing/ "next step housing"; permanent housing: non-profit housing projects; and non-profit housing co-operatives).

It can therefore be used as a starting point by women's organizations wishing to take advantage of the data and experience gained by groups who have already built housing units. This aim appears clearly under two different headings: "what kind of information would you like to give" and "advice to women wishing to set up this type of housing". The survey is also intended for housing officials, who will discover information about the range and diversity of housing forms for women.

HOUSING FOR SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES in Denmark

DESCRIPTION 

• The Blangstedgard community was built between 1987 and 1988 on the outskirts of the Danish town of Odense. It was mainly to accommodate single-parent families, often women. Buildings of different types and dimensions were produced (in co-ownership, rented or in a co-operative unit). Moreover, all social classes and age groups were represented among the tenants.

All services for children up to the age of 10 (including children under 3) are provided in the community. A cultural and leisure centre ("Hus 88") was set up in the neighbourhood area, and common rooms installed in each block of buildings. These rooms are used for tenant reunions, parties, common meals. Current expenses for "Hus 88" are paid by the City of Odense, the expenses for the common rooms make up 1.5% of the rents. Common facilities are especially used by single-parent families.

DAILY LIFE IN A SPATIAL CONTEXT

DESCRIPTION 

• Six theses concerning emancipation in spatial science have been published in the Netherlands in the past five years. Four of them concern daily life. The two most recent ones are:

'A Busy Life; the use of time and space in dual-earner families' by Joos Droogleever Fortuyn, and 'The Urban Mosaic' by Margot Mey.

Fortuyn's work examines the diversities in household strategies of dual-earner families. A typology was established according to two different elements: the balance between paid and unpaid work, and the gender division of labour within the household. This has lead to the determination of four different kinds of households:

- The careerist-symmetrical (CS) families, characterized by a high educational level and symmetry in age and education.

- The careerist-asymmetrical (CA) families, in which wifes are often younger and somewhat less educated than their husbands. The men have a full-time or a more than full-time career, while the women work 20-28 hours a week.

- The familist-symmetrical (FS) families, characterized by both partners having an average education. They both work part-time and take turns in looking after the children.

- The familist-asymmetrical (FA) families, who belong to the working class or the lower middle-class. The men work full time, while women hold small, often temporary, jobs.

These differences in household arrangements become also manifest in spatial needs and in use of space.

Margot Mey's 'Urban Mosaic' tries to use the results of social scientific research, such as 'A Busy Life' for finding new criteria for design. She studied new population categories in their everyday activities, including travel behaviour and actual and preferred types of urban settlement, and she brought these elements together into a model of supply and demand. She designed prototypes representing various urban settlements and used them as a framework for spatial implementations. In these various prototypes, transport systems (bicycles, public transport and cars) are given a central role. The subsequent reference frame includes a series of principles for spatial design and the planning of future urban areas.

• Marieke Renou

'Bouwen in haar perspectief. Vrouwen in verandering, consequenties voor de gebouwde omgeving' Acco, Amersfoort/Leuven 1988

• Wies van Moorsel

'Contact en controle: het vrouwbeeld van de Stichting Goed Wonen' Amsterdam, SUA, 1992

• Mieke Verloo

'Macht en Gender in sociale bewegingen: over de participatie van vrouwen in bewonersorganisaties' (Power and Gender in Urban Social Movements), Amsterdam, SUA, 1992

• Lia Karsten

'Speelruimte van vrouwen: zeggenschap over vrijetijd en vrijetijdsbesteding' (Women's Room to Play. Control over Leisure and Leisure Activities) Amsterdam, SUA, 1992

Joos Droogleever Fortuyn

Ed druk bestaan. Tijdbesteding en ruimtegebruik van tweeverdieners met kinderen', Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 1993

M.G. Mey

'Het stedelijk mozaïek. De voorkeuren van huishoudens als richtsnoer voor het stedebouwkundig ontwerp', Delft University Press, 1994

THE MULTICULTURAL LIVING FOUNDATION (M.C.W.)

DESCRIPTION 

• Communications between tenants and landlords are far from ideal , and the situation is even more difficult in the case of immigrant women: most of them seldom leave their homes, and usually housing officers do not visit them. Moreover, the women of the first generation have a far worse command of Dutch than their husbands and depend generally on spoken language, whereas information is given in writing.

Therefore, the Multicultural Living Foundation has tried to find a solution to the problem. In January 1994, the association set up an experiment in three rather small towns in the central part of Holland (Culemborg, Leerdam, and Gorinchem). Second generation Moroccan and Turkish women attended a special course in order to become intermediaries between the housing associations and immigrant women of the first generation.

The lessons dealt with the history of public housing, the allocation of houses, their prices and the possibility of obtaining subsidies, the repairs landlords have to make, the ways tenants participate in public housing, etc. Then, the various housing associations could decide which kind of intervention the intermediaries would carry out: some of them organised special office hours for immigrant women, others asked the intermediaries to participate in their tenant's committees, to inform immigrant women's groups or to explain Turkish and Moroccan culture to the housing officers. After this first success, the Multicultural Living Foundation is planning to extend its activitiesto other cities.