Women and housing rights is an important subject because, as is stressed many times in this book, in relation to housing rights women are far worse off than men. It follows from this study by Ingrid Westendorp that many of the factors that lead to violations of the right to adequate housing are more pernicious for women than for men and some factors almost exclusively relate to women's lives, eg domestic violence.

The purpose of the book is to examine ‘how, and to what extent, the realization of the right to adequate housing is determined by a person's gender’ (p 1). The subject is restricted to the framework of the United Nations, leaving the regional conventions containing provisions on housing out of scope. The book begins, after a brief introduction to the subject and to the research methods applied, with an analysis of the right to adequate housing. The historical development from being part of the adequate standard of living in the UN Declaration of Human Rights to an independent human right is described. Women's housing rights were not given much attention within the UN framework, not until the 1990s since when the interest in women's housing rights has been gradually growing. Furthermore, the content of the right to adequate housing is analysed. The work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, especially General Comment number 4 regarding Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), is treated as an important tool for the clarification of the meaning of the phrase ‘adequate’. There is a close connection between housing rights and many other human rights such as the right to privacy, family life, etc. This entails that the right to adequate housing is analysed in connection with the other rights; in the words of Westendorp in a ‘holistic approach’.

The second part of the book reflects on the holistic approach. This part deals with several factors that influence women's housing rights. Since housing rights are understood in the broadest sense, numerous heterogeneous factors are analysed. Many of the factors, such as poverty or natural and human-made disasters, will obviously also have an impact on men's housing rights, but very often the author concludes that women are in a more vulnerable situation than men and that women therefore ought to be given special attention when dealing with the right to adequate housing. The materials that are analysed are mainly UN-generated documents. Due to the fact that the author did not carry out any empirical research herself, the main contribution that this part provides is the accumulation of data that shows the interrelatedness of many of the factors.

The third and last part of the book is an assessment of the adequacy of existing norms and procedures for women's housing rights. Within the UN two different strategies for promoting women's rights can be discerned. One (the women specific strategy) is to create women-specific organs and instruments and the other (gender mainstreaming) is to place gender issues within pre-existing structures. Westendorp analyses strengths and weakness regarding the two different approaches and in conclusion recommends that both strategies should be applied since they supplement each other and to a certain extend eradicate each others' weaknesses.

It is a difficult task to deal with housing rights. The right to housing can not be limited to the legal protection of the physical structure of the home. The protected right comprises more than the four walls and a roof. A ‘holistic approach’ is therefore useful. The obvious danger of using a ‘holistic approach’ is the risk of including too many issues. The present book is in my opinion an example of this danger. The factors that influence women's housing rights are numerous. It seems to me that Westendorp wanted to include them all. This does not leave much space for in-depth analysis of concrete cases, etc and this makes it difficult for the reader to translate the many issues into legal arguments. Westendorp does not cover much space (less than a half page) in developing her theoretical approach. The lack of theoretical foundation makes it difficult for her to choose among the many subjects that are relevant for the analysis of women's housing rights. The main value of the present book is to put women's housing rights on the agenda of legal research. Westendorp's work points out many interesting paths for further research.