What the F is a Feminist Housing Plan?

Today, American women are 35% more likely than men to be poor, and account for two-thirds of the nation’s lowest-paid workers. Even women with higher-paying jobs earn lower incomes, and generate less wealth throughout their lifetimes, than men in the same roles. Women are more likely to experience homelessness, live in poverty, and care for children on a single income. Women shoulder the lion’s share of both unpaid domestic carework and commercial carework that is undervalued and underpaid, despite its vital significance for social and economic outcomes.

Such disparities are the result of structural forces that require deliberate, policy-driven solutions. Centuries of public policy grounded in gender bias, norms, and expectations have led to the inequitable state of the U.S. today, in which women are granted a lower quality of life, and less agency to improve their circumstances.

Policymaking through a feminist lens can help eliminate the disadvantages faced by women in their day-to-day lives, while advancing the structural changes necessary to achieve gender equity.

In this new publication, CHPC explores how a feminist housing plan could help create a more just and inclusive New York City for all New Yorkers.