ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to identify gender contracts in self-help housing construction. Gender contracts have been defined as invisible power relationships that determine roles, responsibilities, privileges, status, sexuality and behaviour of men and women within households, communities, the market and the state. Gender contracts shape social, economic, political and sexual relationships in what people often refer to as ‘our culture’. Various gender contracts constitute a gender system, e.g. patriarchy or matriarchy, under which general rules, perceptions, hierarchies and privileges are formulated, refined and preserved.
