Housing has become a focus for viewing some of the major tensions and struggles in contemporary America, said Kathy McCourt, chairman of the sociology department at Loyola University of Chicago.

McCourt spoke Wednesday to NIU students on the problems caused by race and gender which Chicagoans face in obtaining housing. McCourt has worked extensively with various research projects on the issue of housing based on gender and race.

“Housing problems can’t be understood without taking into account the systems of racial class and gender oppression,” she said.

Society usually responds to the lower class based on social class standings or on their race, she said.

Many middle class families have a hard time moving up the socio-economic scale, and have a hard time adjusting once they move up, she said. At the same time, the family has a fear of moving downward, creating anxiety for holding on to what they have.

Issues that face families today concerning housing include the growing number of homeless, the continuous crisis in public housing, the impact of ethnic and racial changes in the neighborhoods and the problems of female-headed households. “All these issues are related to housing,” she said.

The number of female-headed households in the nation is on the rise, particularly in the Chicago area, McCourt said.

Nationally, women head about 27 percent of the households, but about 39 percent of all households in Chicago are headed by females. Approximately 10 million homes in the United States are headed by females, she said.

easons for this trend focus on the way women are choosing to live. More single women are deciding to raise their children alone and elderly women are choosing to living on their own.

The link between women’s paid and unpaid work has particular implications to how they live, McCourt said. There is a close connection between the invisible work that women do—child care, housework, volunteer work, their jobs—and their place of residence.

Today, women are looking for housing in a safe neighborhood near their jobs, good schools and public transportation. However, in most cases, they do not find it, McCourt said.

“Female headed households, particularly those headed by minorities, are the least likely to have access to their needs,” she said.