Gender and housing: The provision of accommodation for young adults in three Mexican cities

Abstract

The literature on gender and housing is oddly distorted, for it is dominated by research on households which are ‘women-headed’, even where the majority of women may live in households conventionally regarded as being headed by men. This literature shuns the ‘traditional’, male-headed, nuclear household and regards ‘non-traditional’ households as being those headed by single mothers or women living alone. The first part of this paper argues that it is important not to restrict discussion of gender and housing to the problems facing single mothers or women living alone, because there is a danger of rendering the majority of women, once again, invisible. Equating ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ households with ‘nuclear’ and ‘women-headed’ households, respectively, confuses structure with headship and overlooks cultural variations in what constitutes a ‘traditional’ household — the nuclear household is not necessarily the traditional norm. The second part of this paper explores a little-documented housing arrangement in which large numbers of women are involved in urban Mexico: sharing. ‘Sharing’ occurs when two or more households occupy the same plot of land; one household owns the plot, allowing the other(s) to live there rent-free. Sharing mostly involves the adult sons or daughters of the plot owners, and may be regarded as a variation on the extended household structure. Sons are more likely to be allowed to bring their wives to their parents' home, whereas daughters are more likely to leave. Women living with their in-laws lack security of tenure and there is often conflict between wives and members of their husband's family of origin, particularly their mothers-in-law. The anthropological literature has identified gender relations as the source of conflict between women in extended households. Sharing reduces the potential for conflict by giving the younger household greater autonomy. Furthermore, concern for their daughters' welfare leads many parents to offer accommodation to married daughters as well as sons. Single mothers, however, are more likely to live as part of their parents' household than to share. In this respect, the nuclear household norm is reinforced, since sharing seems to be a privilege accorded only to those who are married.