Sunday 2 March 2014

Renting Is A Feminist Issue.

Feminist website Vagenda recently discussed condensation in housing, which got me thinking about the affects of rented housing specific to women; if there are any…
Of course there are.

Firstly, women still earn less than men, have worse access to certain well-paid employment, are more likely to have part-time, insecure jobs, and suffered most when local government jobs were cut. This makes women much less able to withstand rent rises, or to access rented housing when prices, are soaring ever skywards.

The obvious difficulty is the danger of viewing properties alone. Try not to do this: invite someone along, phone before you enter the flat then check in and out. May I remind you of a friend shown round a flat by a landlord: 'This is the lounge, the kitchen - here's the bathroom.' Before he paused to add, with noted relish: '...and this will be our room.' She was out of there like a sprinter.

Let's also remember the landlord convicted of setting up hidden webcams in his female tenants' bedrooms. Of the landlord who abused his previously homeless young female tenants by demanding sexual services to let them remain. This is grim reading, isn't it? Historically, things have always been bad. One older tenant told me of being refused a rented flat with the words: 'Silly girl - you won't stay - you'll be married and out of here soon. Stay with your parents until then.'

Or the landlord not so long ago who specified female tenants in his ads, provided single beds, and was outraged when they requested proper, adult, double beds because '...he thought they were nice girls.' Of leering landlords who turn up grinning and gurning with a bottle of booze because '...we liked to party.' (My response? 'Party is NOT a verb but you are wanker.')

Of being roundly admonished during the dreaded inspection for being an 'incomplete women' or ruder words to that effect for not diligently polishing floors with the enthusiasm of Stepford Wives. Or chided for not being 'modern girls' by failing to perform repairs themselves, or told boyfriends should mend the leaks. Or being called bitches for standing up, calmly, knowledgeably and correctly for renting rights.

Renters encounter all the prejudices: racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia. Some tenants can tick 'all of the above'. Let's remember again and shudder once more the swine-ish landlord, who, discovering his tenants were lesbians, leered and asked 'to watch.'

Or of the woman of Nigerian extraction who chose to see entertainment when her landlord SHOUTED AND ENUNCIATED CLEARLY because her tenant was (eek!) a 'foreign, coloured girl' (despite being second generation, and born in Romford.) But then, at least she got to rent the place - many agents wouldn't have let her get that far.

Of course, this is 'everyday sexism.' It happens everywhere, all the time. But when I knew my friend lived in fear because her creepy landlord let himself in to her flat while she was in the shower, it's too close. It's raw. It's personal. How do we stop this?


http://rentergirl.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/discrimination.html

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good advice RG.
The awful tragedy of Suzy Lamplugh applies equally to renters;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Suzy_Lamplugh

Susannah "Suzy" Lamplugh (/ˈlæmpluː/; born 3 May 1961,[citation needed] Gloucestershire)[1] was a British estate agent reported missing on 28 July 1986 (aged 25) in Fulham, South West London, England. She was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1994. The last clue of her whereabouts was an appointment to show a house in Shorrolds Road to someone she referred to as "Mr. Kipper".
..to this day, her remains have never been found.


Regards HB Welcome

RenterGirl said...

I wrote about here, too, some time ago:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/aug/12/rentergirl-renting-flats-advice

Anonymous said...

Hi Renter girl… I usually read your blog and as one eyed and hysterical as it sometimes/often is (I don’t think you’d make any apologies for your bias and why indeed should you?) it makes some good points and gets important messages across…however just to clarify the gender pay gap is a myth… in fact among 20-30 years olds (prime tenant demography) women earn MORE than me... yes more – shocking I know that we can allow such sexism top prevail but men don’t count in the feminized world we live in… incidentally men are exponentially both in % and actual number terms to be homeless than women just putting it out there…

RenterGirl said...

The bit where I say about short-term, insecure jobs. Yeah. That.

Anonymous said...

Yeah but men are as equally indeed more affected by that aren't they? But then they don't have an ideologically driven state/media/charity backed, academically studied support network behind them they [men] just have to shoulder that burden...the woes of renting are gender blind and to bring feminism into it just mixes the cocktail and dilutes the arguments against the evils of a broken housing market...stick to what you know RG and not what misguided feminists with their lies damm lies and statistics tell you...

RenterGirl said...

Behold! An idiot! Don't you patronise me by telling me what I should stick to, Idiot-boy. I can see who you are BTW and you clearly have a jaundiced prejudice against charity, to name just one of your bigotries. There are gender specific renting woes. fact. Now sod off.

Anonymous said...

Yeah there are gender specific issues around renting and more pointedly homelessness – totally agree that those issues adversely affect men – glad you’re with me on that one;

“Men are discriminated against even when they’re homeless and living on the street. Across the UK about 90% of homeless people are men, many of them ex-military, suffering from undiagnosed and untreated Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. State support of ex-military people with mental health issues, overwhelmingly men, is derisory. The reasons for there being so many homeless men include being at the end of the queue when it comes to social housing.

“Some months ago I wrote a blog piece on homelessness, and a female social worker who works with the homeless sent in this comment:

‘If a homeless woman comes into our offices on a Friday afternoon, I’m obliged to offer her money, accommodation, food and clothing. If a homeless man comes into our offices on a Friday afternoon, I’m obliged to send him back out onto the street, with nothing.’

Extracted from a debate held at Durham uni…

*I can see who you are – bit sinister…

Anonymous said...

I suppose someone with 2 degrees could feasibly be an ‘idiot’…I’ll take that one, trouble is FACTS are there for all to see…feminist ideology has managed to make its lies believable by repeating them often enough – but they are not true…if you choose to believe them you’re an idiot too

RenterGirl said...

If degrees made people clever, you wouldn't be an idiot.

Oh, dear 'men's movement' trolls. Oh you poor little luvs.

I can see who you are is a simple fact - the stat device I use provides location, length of visit etc. Useful when unearthing odd obsessed readers and trolls.

Women will be housed asap (although asap is a joke with increased homelessness, since single childless women are nobody's priority) due to being at risk of sexual violence and having care of children.

Anonymous said...


I've heard the expression 'Troll' and take it to be a generally bad thing...I'm not 'bad' or a threat to you...I agree with a large chunk of what you say (maybe not the way you say it but the sentiment behind it which has some solid substance and is largely true i.e. the evils of BTL, etc) - as far as 'men’s movement' goes and your response to it [men’s rights and challenging sexism/discrimination against men] is probably no different to the response given to civil rights campaigners 60 odd years ago or feminists 40 or 50 years ago or gay right campaigners 20 years ago...bigotry, ignorance and prejudice needs to be broken down challenged and hopefully men won't suffer the state sponsored discrimination that they [currently] do in 30 years’ time - it'll be an extremely long road with the first step being for 'good' people* to recognise such horrific prejudice [against men] exists...try being a bloke in today’s society - it ain't easy and if the patriarchy is supposed to favour me as a man then I want my money back because it isn't working for me and 99.9% of other men either...


*and at heart I think you RG are a good person

Anonymous said...

"Extracted from a debate held at Durham uni…"

...Which was resoundingly lost.

Regards HB Welcome.

Anonymous said...

In one place I lived, for the first few weeks after moving in I was terrified to return home alone at night. My first stop was the kitchen to grab a knife. Why? The agent was such a creepy letch. He made sexual innuendos, flirted, and then sent me messages on Facebook. I was terrified that he'd use the agent's copy of the keys to let himself in. Problem was, as a single woman on a low income, it was the only place I could afford to live alone. Before that I'd house-shared but had to move out because, yep, one of my housemates constantly made a move on me. He assumed that because the other male and female in the house had started to share a bed regularly that perhaps I would like to share his bed too.

So yes, renting is a feminist issue. Being alive as a woman and all related activities are a feminist issue.

RenterGirl said...

I am so sorry that happened. It is telling that I have heard so many similar stories that I used only the unusual stories. My friend was menaced be a landlord who's home was linked to hers by a door. She moved out. Hope you're ok now.

Rachel Nye said...

I like this, for me all of the coverage on housing has done so under the current malestream paradigm and I think taking a feminist/intersectional lens to it gives us a fuller picture. Housing and homelessness affect all of us differently and we need to understand from all perspectives (male/female/single//in a relationship/ethnicity/nationality/sexual orientation the list goes on.....)

Play-T said...

There is no doubt, women are not in the same position while renting. I have a friend who asked me to go with her while looking for an apartment to rent. Despite we can´t say that women are not free to to whatever they wish, regarding some topics they are in a weaker position in comparison to men.

RenterGirl said...

It's true. Even those deluded 'men's movement' posters must admit that these problems are particular to women. But can anyone point me in the direction of problems which men, and men uniquely, face when renting. Many rentiers might not wish to house obvious adherents to 'lad-culture'? Is that reasonable?

Anonymous said...

Ironically somewhat paradoxically and a bit of an awkward truth for feminists…but the very so called ‘feminist’ traits arguably put women, especially groups of women at an advantage when seeing rented accommodation – as per RG’s musings…being a bloke or a group of blokes esp younger ones might raise alarm bells to a rentier whereas a young female or group of young females might suggest ‘nice girls’ and (the flip side of so called harassment/creepiness) women can use their looks/femininity in ways that men are, unless particularly eligible, unable to do so…a flutter of those wide heavily made up eyes and a low cut top can work wonders on puppy dog men (or male letting agents) – I know I’ve been a (un)willing victim of it many times…

Anonymous said...

*seeking

RenterGirl said...

I am appalled. You man trolls are desperate. You are trying to compare endemic societal misogyny and institutional sexism against woman with a few 'lads' being rejected from as tenants due to the fact they might be... lads, with all that entails. Grow up. Wise up. Then sod off.

Anonymous said...

RG said,
"But can anyone point me in the direction of problems which men, and men uniquely, face when renting."

At the risk of incurring your wrath, I respectfully point out that the changes to housing benefit shared accommodation rate mostly affected men.

This is particularly harsh on responsible Fathers wanting their children to stay with them at weekends. It is very difficult looking after 3 children in a bedsit. Even more galling when the ex-wife has been awarded the family home as is usually the case.

Whereas a teenage girl can purposely get pregnant and is eligible for housing benefit to rent a house.

Regards, HB Welcome.

RenterGirl said...

Right. Anyone who ever write bullshit on this blog that 'teenage girls get pregnant to get housing' get deleted. It's a myth. And don't crawl for those 'supporting' facts that suit your biased bigotry HB - I will delete it. (*idiot*)