More time for care

Abstract

There is currently a "crisis of care" in our neoliberal capitalist society in which women are disproportionally affected and experience isolation in their homes trying to take care of their family members. For low-income households, the struggle involves balancing their time to work and also taking enough care of their family. Co-operative housing tenure could offer these households both affordable housing and support within the housing project with care. For this research I would explore the following question; How can a fourth-wave feminist housing concept with co-operative housing tenure organise social reproduction spaces to support low-income families who need more time for care? The first wave of feminists utilised architecture to realise their ideas for gender equality, but some also maintained the separation between gender and exclusion of lower-class citizens. The second and third-wave feminists managed to further equal access of all genders to domains dominated by men, but they lost the spatial connection as to why women are economically obstructed from financial independence. Now during the fourth wave, there is a crisis of care related to the distance between facilities and housing, the speculation of real estate and the financial disadvantages of women. The conclusion to this research is a housing concept in which a housing and a work co-op offer the residents different spaces and facilities that offer communal and individual care forms and expression.