8M: Independence vs. Security, All the Considerations We Take to Move Alone and Why We Often Can’t

Being a woman in Argentina in the midst of all the insecurity we live is not easy, even more so if it is time to make the decision to become independent and go live alone. In addition to the high costs currently seen in the rental market, it is more difficult for a woman to get a property that meets all the requirements and has sufficient security, just because she is a woman. 81.8% of women feel safer living in an apartment, according to the latest survey by Zonaprop in the framework of International Women’s Day (to which from now on we will add Trabajadora). And yes, it is not easy to make the decision to become independent from the family to move alone and to that are added other fears, typical of the society in which we live. The ideal of living alone in the face of the fear of a macho societyWe seek to have security in the property, that’s why we mostly choose an apartment: it turns out that we all know someone who was broken into the house and no neighbor heard what was happening. This scenario in a building is smaller, as the neighbor usually hears even the conversations we have. But our security is not only reduced to the type of property in which we move, it results in many other factors that we take into account when changing location: the choices are made in terms of access to means of transport (69%), that it is a well-lit neighborhood (43%), has shops nearby (43%) and 24-hour security (32%). The latter makes property more expensive, which opens another door to the difficulties we go through when we move: the difficulty of self-support.   Going out on the street for a woman is a challenge in itself, far from what a deputy knew how to say some time ago, a compliment does not change your day, or it does, but for the worse. It’s scary and makes a fool of us in front of all the people. Yes, we are afraid to go outside, at night we try to drive on busy streets (76%) and with good lighting (66%). In order not to feel persecuted, we also try to have commercial premises (36%) and wide streets (13%). The biggest challenge that a woman faces when moving out on her own is undoubtedly covering all her fixed expenses, 59% of those surveyed agree on this. In a time of crisis, where rents are totally unregulated, being able to move alone is a privilege. Hence, 45% of women who live with others want to live alone. However, they agree that they do not have the necessary resources to meet the expenses of a property. The dream of owning a home is getting further and further away from womenOnly 35% of women surveyed own a property in their name. And it is logical, women are the most precarious in terms of employment: currently, 75% of retired women did so with a moratorium, according to the latest CEPA survey. In other words, they did not have enough contributions to retire and therefore, they did so with the minimum income. Of this total, 40% say that they do not have the necessary money to buy a property and 25.3% explain that if they want to invest in a house, they should go to a loan. Only 9% have savings to be able to buy a property.

Original source in Spanish