Issue: Discriminatory laws and policiesIssue: Perceptions of discrimination or harassment (by sex)
Relevance and promising measurement approaches:
Urban poverty and housing unaffordability has severe impacts on women and girls — women and girls who are poor and living in urban slums face challenges distinct to those of men. Yet sex-disaggregated data on housing and shelter is critically lacking.
Data suggest that in 2014, 23% of the urban population lived in slums, but women are disproportionately represented among cities’ poorest residents, with more than half of the female urban population aged 15–49 living in slums in 67% of the countries with available data.
In developing countries, more than half of urban women and girls lack at least one of the following: access to clean water, improved sanitation, durable housing or a sufficient living area. Housing deficits and poor conditions impose extra burdens on women, who already on average spend more time at home on household and unpaid labor. In polluted urban slums, it is most often women who spend the most time in areas heavily polluted by unclean cookstoves and who wash clothing in contaminated water sources. Overcrowding and poor sanitation also make entire households more vulnerable to illness, and it is women who disproportionately shoulder the burden of care for the sick.