Valentina Saavedra Meléndez defended, on 11 June 2026, her doctoral thesis entitled “La política de vivienda social y su relación con la violencia doméstica hacia las mujeres. El caso de Santiago de Chile y Barcelona”, at the Department of Geography of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), under the supervision of Dr. Maria Prats Ferret.
The research analyses the relationship between social housing policies and gender-based violence, focusing on how the design, management and access to public housing directly affect women’s autonomy and safety. Through a comparative approach between Santiago de Chile and Barcelona, the study addresses housing not only as a material asset, but as a key element for the survival of women experiencing violence.
The findings show how the lack of safe and accessible housing alternatives can perpetuate situations of abuse, forcing many women to remain with their aggressor or face housing exclusion. The thesis also highlights how certain housing typologies, as well as institutional barriers and peripheral urban models, can reinforce victims’ isolation and dependency.
Through the analysis of the two contexts, the research reveals significant differences in public policies and available resources, highlighting, on the one hand, the structural limitations of the Chilean model, marked by subsidiarity and the commodification of housing, and, on the other hand, the advances and challenges of the Barcelona context in incorporating a gender perspective into urban and housing policies.
The thesis makes important contributions from the perspective of gender geography and feminist urbanism, and underlines the need to guarantee immediate access to adequate housing as a central element in tackling gender-based violence, as well as to promote housing models that foster community support networks and more flexible public policies.
From the Geography and Gender Research Group, we celebrate this new academic contribution, which reinforces our commitment to critical, situated and socially transformative research. Congratulations, Valentina, on this valuable work.
