Our Purpose

The purpose of the Women’s Housing Forum is to raise awareness of the links between women’s housing needs and gender inequality and to encourage social housing providers and other strategic partners to work together to tackle these issues.

Intersectionality, which considers the overlapping inequalities women face in relation to their race, sexuality, age etc alongside being a woman, is at the heart of the work of the Women’s Housing Forum.

Key principles

 In order to achieve its purpose, the Forum will:

• Raise the profile of the role social housing providers can and must play in eliminating discrimination against women accessing and keeping suitable housing.

• Distil existing research and commission further research into the links between gender inequality and women’s housing needs, and the impact that a failure to tackle these issues has on women and society as a whole.

• Consider the additional impact of intersectionality including; race, sexuality, age, religion, disability and income/poverty on specific groups of women facing structural inequality.

• Use research and best practice from the sector and elsewhere, to identify practical steps all social housing providers can take to better meet women’s housing needs.

• Develop and maintain partnerships outside of the social housing sector, in particular with local and central government, in order to improve relationships and joined-up working.  

• Seek to understand the regional context of any issues to encourage work on a local basis to improve outcomes for women in accessing and keeping suitable housing.

• Operate in an open and transparent manner with a commitment to keep social housing providers and other stakeholders informed about its work, sharing any learning with others.