Engender blog

3 Steps to Achieving Primary Prevention in Housing

We’ve published the second in our series of mini-briefings shining a spotlight on how to achieve a primary prevention approach in different areas of public policy with this new briefing highlighting why ensuring women’s access to safe, secure and quality housing is essential for advancing women’s equality and preventing VAWG once and for all.

Women’s access to housing is fundamentally shaped by structural gender inequality and other intersectional forms of marginalisation.

In Scotland, women generally experience less favourable outcomes in the housing system than men. This deepens gender inequality not only in the housing system but also in wider society. These factors can create an enabling environment for VAWG in the home as well as in the public realm, as women participate in it less.

When we talk about primary prevention of VAWG, we’re talking about preventing this violence from happening in the first place. Evidence shows the best way to do this is to tackle the root cause of this violence: gender inequality.  Therefore, ensuring women’s access to safe, secure and quality housing is essential for advancing women’s equality and preventing VAWG once and for all.

Without access to safe, secure and affordable housing, women’s living standards, economic and social opportunities - as well as their health and wellbeing are affected - reinforcing gender inequality, which ultimately enables VAWG. The lack of intersectional gender analysis in housing policy undermines women’s safety due to things like lack of affordable housing options, lack of safe housing options, and a lack of gender-sensitive design and planning in housing.

Our new briefing highlights Three Steps Towards Achieving a Primary Prevention Approach in Housing Policy

1. Women are equally and fairly represented in policy-making roles

• Improve women’s pathways and career progression opportunities, particularly for minoritised women, in the housing sector
• Ensure inclusive working environments in the housing sector by implementing flexible working procedures,
  anti-discrimination and harassment policies and women’s leadership initiatives

2. Policymakers consistently apply intersectional gender analysis in their work

• Collect and publish intersectional gender-sensitive sexdisaggregated data on women’s experiencing housing,
  including for the Scottish Household Survey and Scottish Housing Condition Survey
• Ensure Equality Impact Assessments are conducted at the outset of new housing policies and that these are
  informed by intersectional gender-sensitive data on housing issues

3. Policymakers mainstream primary prevention in all areas of their work

• Increase opportunities for co-designing housing developments with women, especially those with lived experience of VAWG 
• Embed women’s safety considerations into housing planning and design and decisions about the housing system, including on social security, service provision and housing legislation

Find out more in our new briefing here and follow us on social media to get the latest news on other briefings in the series, coming soon!

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