NEWS: Women’s Housing Forum leads student Workshop at SfGH KCL conference on ‘Why Housing is a Feminist Issue’

Following the success of the Women’s Housing Forum’s debut event in January, Denise Fowler and Zaiba Qureshi, co-chairs of the Women’s Housing Forum (WHF), were invited to facilitate an interactive workshop at the Students for Global Health (SfGH) Kings College London conference: US V THEM: ‘Dehumanisation and Othering’ on Saturday 16th February.

Their workshop, entitled ‘Why Housing is a Feminist Issue’, explored how the economic challenges women face can lead to dehumanising and othering experiences when trying to access secure and affordable housing.

Denise and Zaiba welcomed a large group of passionate students from across the UK, presenting current research regarding the gender pay gap, economic marginalisation and the barriers to women in accessing suitable housing. Notably, in the breakout sessions, the group was incredibly passionate around issues relating to the gender pay gap, sex for rent and violence against women and girls.

Harnessing the enthusiasm in the room, they facilitated group discussions around gender inequality and what students can do at a grassroots level to address this. Zaiba and Denise also learned of other initiatives aimed at tackling poverty and homelessness that participants were involved in around the country.

Commenting on the event, Denise and Zaiba said: “As co-chairs of The Women’s Housing Forum, we are committed to raising awareness of the links between women’s housing needs and gender inequality. We were therefore delighted to be invited to present at this unique conference, build upon the success of our debut WHF event and further raise awareness of women’s housing issues among a group of passionate, young women and men. There was much enthusiasm for our mission and aims, which was incredibly encouraging to see, and we look forward to further building upon this momentum as we develop WHF’s membership model.”

We are currently looking at our future membership structure and will be in touch very soon with further details. 

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