ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the interaction between women's lifestyle preferences and housing type more fully. It examines the link between the polarization of lifestyle preferences and the social polarization of housing, a very different type of polarization that occurs in Britain, but not necessarily in all modern societies. The chapter analyses the research evidence on the polarization of women's lifestyles in the types of housing. It is well-established that fertility is higher among working-class couples than in higher social classes. It was repeatedly observed in the 1970s that fertility is markedly higher among people in public rented housing than among people in owner-occupied housing with a mortgage still being paid off. By 1991, there were fundamental differences in employment patterns between women of working age in owner-occupied housing and in public rented housing. For women in particular, housing tenure can have almost as large an impact on full-time work rates as attitude variables.
