What the F is a feminist housing plan?
Intro
Gender-neutral policies are not enough to create the structural change that is needed. Solutions and policies to advance gender equity must be explicitly feminist.
Feminist policies can help eliminate the disadvantages faced by women in their day-to-day lives, while advancing the structural changes necessary to achieve gender equity.
Feminist Policies & Why We Need Them
Public policy tends to be created under the assumption that the same solution or treatment for everyone will render equal benefits. Yet seemingly gender-neutral policies are often far from neutral in effect. Decades of public policy in the U.S. have embedded gender inequality into our cities, economy, social safety net, and housing stock. Policies that fail to address existing disparities in women’s access to opportunity and quality of life only serve to reinforce an inequitable status quo.
Feminist policies must strive to achieve an equitable quality of life for all women, a goal that cannot be met if some women remain marginalized on the basis of their race, ethnicity, age, etc. It is crucial for feminist policies to embrace an intersectional approach.
Feminist policymaking is not about creating a system that favors or exclusively serves women. Quite the opposite: feminist policies allow everyone to access a degree of agency, opportunity, and quality of life that has historically been reserved for a select few.
The publication
A NEW LENS FOR NYC HOUSING PLAN: WHAT THE F IS A FEMINIST HOUSING PLAN?
Housing policy is rarely discussed as a way to address gender inequality or provide an economic safety net for women. How would we measure our success if the next housing plan was explicitly feminist?
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.
What the F is a Feminist Housing Plan is part of A New Lens for NYC’s Housing Plan, CHPC’s research and education initiative to explore how New York City’s next housing plan could have a broader impact beyond counting units. The next housing plan provides an opportunity for communities and policymakers to widen the discussion, articulate new metrics, and develop a shared vision of housing policy for the city.
Related events
A NEW LENS FOR NYC HOUSING PLAN
What the F is a Feminist Housing Plan is part of A New Lens for NYC’s Housing Plan, CHPC’s research and education initiative to explore how New York City’s next housing plan could have a broader impact beyond counting units. The next housing plan provides an opportunity for communities and policymakers to widen the discussion, articulate new metrics, and develop a shared vision of housing policy for the city.
Initiative Sponsors
