On Tuesday 2 July, the European Investment Bank (EIB) published a report entitled ‘Promoting gender equality in public social housing’ to demonstrate the importance of inclusive housing policies in overcoming inequalities.
The EIB is presenting a project in Valencia (Spain), where the municipal housing company (AUMSA) has undertaken to build 323 affordable social rental homes, 233 of which incorporate gender criteria and 63 of which are near-zero energy buildings.
And for good reason: integrating the gender perspective into housing policies is crucial to ensuring equal rights. In 2022, 22.7% of European women were at risk of poverty after paying the cost of their housing, compared with 20.4% of men. The report, which also draws on best practice from other European cities such as Vienna, Paris, Brussels and Barcelona, identifies barriers such as the under-representation of women in science and technology professions, where they account for just 32.8% of employees, and the inadequacy of disaggregated data.
The report also calls for the inclusion of women in technical and decision-making professions related to housing and urban planning to be encouraged, and for fair recruitment practices to be promoted. The EIB also recommends increasing the number of women in leadership and entrepreneurial roles in social housing-related sectors.
Finally, the document calls for improved data collection by gender in order to design specific policies aimed at reducing inequalities.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/cys (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)