First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In the context of contemporary economic, political, social and cultural transformations, this book brings together contributions from developed and emerging societies in Europe, the USA and East Asia in order to highlight the nature, extent and impact of these changes on the housing opportunities of women. The collection seeks to contribute to comparative housing debates by highlighting the gendered nature of housing processes, locating these processes within wider structured and institutionalized relations of power, and to show how these socially constructed relationships are culturally contingent, and manifest and transform over time and space. The international contributors draw on a wide range of empirical evidence relating to labour market participation, wealth distribution, family formation and education to demonstrate the complexity and gendered nature of the interlocking arenas of production, reproduction and consumption and the implications for the housing opportunities of women in different social contexts. Worldwide examples are drawn from Australia, China, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and the USA.

Living on Your Own is an ethnography of young, single women in South Korea who seek to live independently. Using extensive interviews, along with media analysis and archival research, Jesook Song traces the women's difficulties in achieving residential autonomy. Song exposes the clash between the women's burgeoning desire for independent lives and the ongoing incursion of traditional, conservative family ideology and marriage pressure into housing practices and financial institutions. She pays particular attention to the Korean rent system and the reliance on lump-sum cash even for basic subsistence, which promotes tight control of young adults' lives by family and kinship networks. The young women whose voices feature prominently in this book are a prototype of global youth in crisis: caught between aspirations for the self-development and flexible lifestyle championed by globalizing media and communication technology and the reality of their position as flexible labor in a neoliberal economy.

He observes them, creating portraits that are intimate and objective, while breaking down stereotypes and dehumanizing labels often used to describe the homeless. Liebow writes about their daily habits, constant struggles, their humor, compassion and strength.

In this second edition of a classic text, the changes in the lives of women using social services and women working in them are sensitively charted with the aim of reflecting on how non-sexist women-centred practice can be nurtured and developed. Retaining its original emphasis on attitudes, values and the social welfare context, the text explores the core areas of poverty, work (including providing support for children and adults), violence and familial relationships, but with a stronger emphasis on the important diversities created by age, disability and employment, as well as by race, class and sexuality.

The Bureau of Social Hygiene made this study of 18,000 working women. The study presents statistics on living and working conditions, and concludes that the living situation of single working women requires attention.