Single parents in cold homes in Europe: How intersecting personal and national characteristics drive up the numbers of these vulnerable households

Abstract

This paper develops the social science concept of intersectionality, exploring how macro-level factors in 28 EU countries in 2010–2018 put upward pressure on the percentage of single parent households unable to heat their homes. Intersectionality research avoids categorising individuals according to one dominant characteristic, such as gender or marital status, and instead explores how vulnerabilities or resilience can be determined by several characteristics intersecting in individuals' lives. The paper considers the intersection of being single, a parent, and unable to heat one's home, noting that this can be further modified by gender, race and other factors. In a novel departure, the paper explores how the intersections of country-wide economic, weather and structural factors impinge on these vulnerable persons. It does this by using an ordinary least-squares multivariate analysis to regress the percentage of single parents who cannot heat their homes against these factors simultaneously. The central finding is that this percentage correlates most strongly with GDP per capita, income inequality and the quality of housing, factors which have implications for policy on energy poverty. The intersectionality approach provides further insights for policy by highlighting the disproportionate effect of these factors on single parent households.