Gender Research on Urbanization, Planning, Housing and Everyday Life

THIS COLLECTION OF papers comprises the first phase of outputs under the Gender Research on Urbanization, Planning, Housing and Everyday Life (GRUPHEL) Programme. The programme was set up to examine in detail different manifestations of gender discrimination within the broad field of urbanization, planning and housing in southern Africa, and to recommend policy directions for governments and donors on the basis of this information. Three introductory chapters define key concepts and issues referred to in later papers, and outline the research methodology for the studies. It is argued that qualitative research is vital for understanding the ideological or institutional structures which perpetuate gender disadvantage.

Chapter two looks at how approaches to women and housing in development policy have shifted from the welfare or modernization approach, to equity and participation, basic needs, efficiency, empowerment and the market adaptation approaches. Some of these approaches have influenced development practice while others have only been influential at a rhetorical level. The second section comprises ten research papers. With reference to a settlement in Durban, chapter four questions the usefulness of the concept of the unitary household in housing policy. The author shows how preferences concerning housing improvements, linked to social constructions of women as “home-makers” and men as “household heads”, differ remarkably on the basis of gender and age. Chapter five looks at laws and policies affecting women’s access to and ownership of housing in Maseru, Lesotho, and examines women’s roles in the construction and housing related service sectors. Chapter six, also on Maseru, examines the factors that constrain women’s access to credit facilities for housing, and concludes that informal financial associations such as burial societies and Credit Unions provide better access to loans for housing construction or improvement than those in the formal sector. Chapter seven looks at women’s participation in mine co-operatives in Zimbabwe. Linkages between women’s work in the mines and their responsibilities as wives within the mine compounds are drawn out. Chapter eight looks at the incidence of lodging in high density suburbs in Zimbabwe, and argues that women’s general lack of economic power relative to men means that they tend to be concentrated in overcrowded, and poorly maintained properties.

Chapter nine looks at women’s involvement with microenterprises in a high density suburb in Harare, Zimbabwe, and at local authority efforts to prepare a Local Development Plan. The need for public participation in the planning process is emphasized. Chapter ten reports on research on the future aspirations of male and female finalists at the University of Zimbabwe, including the type of housing they aspired to, their expectations about marriage, and concerning financial responsibility for running a home, for raising children and for domestic chores. The research considered whether education had shifted men’s and women’s attitudes concerning gender roles and responsibilities away from a “traditionalist” perspective. Chapter eleven looks at women’s access to trading space in a small but growing district service centre in south east Zimbabwe. Factors that work against women trading include lack of information on trading options and on procedures for accessing trading space; lack of support, whether in the domestic sphere or from business and other institutions; poor education, which constrains women’s access to training programmes; and lack of collateral with which to secure start-up capital. Chapter twelve looks at the living conditions of nannies working in high cost residential areas in Lusaka, Zambia and identifies the lack of their own accommodation as a major constraint to their independence. Chapter thirteen examines women’s rights to property within the pluralist legal system in Zambia. The way in which gender subordinatio