Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1184660136.pdf (297.65 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The relational and status foundation of gender discrimination in housing

Tester, Griff M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1184660136

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Sociology.
Audit studies of housing discrimination have focused nearly entirely on the exclusion of racial and ethnic minorities. Much less attention, on the other hand, has centered on differential treatment by gender. Given what we know about gender broadly, gender inequalities in other institutional domains specifically (e.g., employment), and the gendered perceptions, meanings, and experiences associated with the home, gender discrimination within the housing context should be viewed as an important topic of research for both social scientists and public policy makers. In this dissertation, I first review literature on housing discrimination and then integrate insights from a broader body of gender stratification scholarship. Resulting theoretical expectations center on potential status variations among women, relational and interactional processes of inequality as applied to housing in particular, and potential exclusionary and non-exlusionary forms of housing discrimination and their implications. My largely qualitative analyses draw on 204 verified cases of gender discrimination and 457 cases of familial status discrimination in housing filed with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development between 1990 and 2003. Results reveal that women, like racial and ethnic minorities, face exclusionary forms of discrimination, but also significant levels of differential treatment and harassment after gaining access to housing. In fact, the preponderance of gender discrimination typically unfolds after women have gained access to housing, and the harassment is often sexual in nature. In contrast, discrimination based on familial status, strongly impacted by social class vulnerability, is usually exclusionary in nature. Stereotypes and norms about gender, masculinity and femininity, and children and the family set the stage for these forms of housing discrimination. Importantly, however, gender alone cannot explain the discrimination that women face in the housing context. Instead, and as revealed in my qualitative immersion into case files themselves, gender vulnerabilities in housing are compounded in significant ways by social class and racial disadvantages as well as family compositional patterns. I conclude by discussing these results, the generalizability of the inequalities uncovered for understanding gender stratification in other institutional arenas, and the implications of my analyses for both policy and discrimination law.
Vincent Roscigno (Advisor)
161 p.
Sociology, General
Housing Discrimination; Gender Discrimination; Multidimensional and relational nature of discrimination; Gender, Race, and Class; Gender and the home

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Tester, G. M. (2007). The relational and status foundation of gender discrimination in housing [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1184660136

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Tester, Griff. The relational and status foundation of gender discrimination in housing. 2007. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1184660136.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Tester, Griff. "The relational and status foundation of gender discrimination in housing." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1184660136

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1184660136
1,186
© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.