This edited collection presents a comprehensive examination of women's relationships to housing--both as consumers of housing services and managers of these services. The book begins with a discussion of women's experience of housing as buyers of property and users of housing services, examining in detail income differentials, the dominance of the needs of the nuclear family in housing forms and the ways in which housing allocations policies often discriminate against women. Subsequent discussion looks at women as producers of housing and assesses the structures within which they have to work.
While much of the literature to date has portrayed women as passive recipients of services and victims of discrimination, this volume shows the very active role women have played, for example in housing protest movements. Throughout, the book is forward looking, considering the possibility of new housing forms which would challenge gender assumptions and be more attractive to women. The contributors make policy recommendations necessary to the creation of affordable housing and employment and training agencies to ensure better equal opportunity policies.

Explores the impact of policy on specific groups of women and the role that they play as both tenants and managers in shpaing a service and housing design around their particular needs.

It is well known that we are living in a time of demographic shift to an ageing society, yet our responses to this are still uneven and often spring from dated assumptions and images of older people. The significance of place in all our lives, but particularly in the lives of older people, puts responsibility on planners and other place-makers to challenge ideas about later life by developing practices of involvement that put older people's voices at the core of planning responses. This book introduces planners to dominant ideas about ageing and how these have influenced the responses of place-makers, considering how the demographic shift may be a catalyst for new thinking in place-making. It is not so much about planning for old people, but about how an ageing population changes all aspects of our lives. The book introduces useful concepts such as the 20-minute neighbourhood and the everyday-life framework; explains the age-friendly movement; and questions to what extent it helps cities respond to change. Comparing international case studies, it explores the critical role of housing and the possible use of land allocation to encourage developers to think about better and more housing options for later life. Other aspects covered include the importance of mobility and the role of good urban design; planning as part of preventative care; and bringing together green and ageing/disability agendas.