More Than Just Shelter: Housing as Social Infrastructure for Women and Girls

The global housing crisis is not gender neutral. While nearly one third of the world’s population lives in inadequate housing, women and girls are disproportionately affected by housing unaffordability, insecurity, informality and displacement, due to structural inequalities in income, care responsibilities, access to land, finance and decision-making. In Europe, where the housing crisis has intensified across cities of all sizes, these dynamics particularly affect single mothers, migrant women, young women and older women. International frameworks such as the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda recognise secure access to adequate housing for women as a fundamental human right and a condition for freedom from violence, autonomy and social inclusion. Housing, however, cannot be reduced to the provision of units or physical shelter. It is a multidimensional concept, as social infrastructure encompassing access to services, mobility and care, architectural quality, residential equity and attention to everyday life—especially the often invisible and unpaid labour of women and girls, largely overlooked in housing and urban policies. This event offers a feminist and rights-based analysis of housing systems, with a focus on the European context—from the New European Bauhaus to emerging EU housing initiatives. It will explore how national and local housing policies respond to affordability pressures, housing insecurity and social exclusion, and how gender-responsive approaches can strengthen their effectiveness by reframing housing as a driver of equality, well-being, urban resilience and social cohesion. The session will present concrete experiences from cities, women-led organisations and civil society actors implementing gender-responsive housing policies, including social and public housing, with attention to the gendered impacts of financialisation, homelessness and housing precarity. Through two facilitated roundtables and Q&A sessions, participants will discuss how housing policies in both formal and informal contexts can integrate gender perspectives and women’s leadership, and how city-level innovations can inspire scalable and transferable solutions. Discussions will also address European, national and local financing mechanisms and governance models that promote participation, access to rights and inclusion. Objectives • Strengthen existing alliances and expand them among women-led organizations, community groups, policymakers, and professionals working on housing; • Exchange practical solutions to address the gendered impacts of the housing crisis and promoting gender-responsive housing approaches. • Identify a list of key actions and strategies to integrate gender perspectives and social, economic, and technical innovation into housing policies; • Promote gender-responsive housing policies and participatory governance by linking lived experience, city-level practices and European and international policy frameworks