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Women’s Homelessness and Welfare States

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Book cover Women’s Homelessness in Europe

Abstract

Chapter 4 explores the relationships between European welfare systems and women’s experience of homelessness. Previous research argues that welfare systems broadly determine the nature and extent of homelessness. The chapter argues that earlier research is based on limited evidence and has neglected to examine gender. The role that welfare systems play in women’s homelessness is complex. Welfare states can support a woman with children, effectively ‘protecting’ her from homelessness, but they may also remove children from homeless women and deliver highly variable supports to lone women. Welfare systems also reinforce wider patterns of cultural and political bias centred on gender.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Source FEANTSA http://www.feantsa.org/spip.php?article430.

  2. 2.

    http://visual.ons.gov.uk/welfare-spending/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of York, York, UK

    Joanne Bretherton & Nicholas Pleace

  2. Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lars Benjaminsen

Authors
  1. Joanne Bretherton
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  2. Lars Benjaminsen
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  3. Nicholas Pleace
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joanne Bretherton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Paula Mayock

  2. Centre for Housing Policy, University of York, York, United Kingdom

    Joanne Bretherton

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© 2016 The Author(s)

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Bretherton, J., Benjaminsen, L., Pleace, N. (2016). Women’s Homelessness and Welfare States. In: Mayock, P., Bretherton, J. (eds) Women’s Homelessness in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54516-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54516-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-54515-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54516-9

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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