Repossessing 'Home' : a re-analysis of gender, homeownership and debtor default for feminist legal theory.

The current credit crisis has brought the subject of subprime and other problematic debt to the forefront of many agendas - both political and personal. This article explores some of the underlying legal, theoretical, economic, and phenomenological issues associated with default and foreclosure, particularly as they affect women home-owners. The analysis is embedded in feminist discourse on home, from traditional critiques of the association between women and home to evolving conceptions of the benefits and the burdens of home for contemporary feminist theory. This article traces the ideas of "home" and "homeownership" for American women and considers how it might be appropriate to respond to the risks associated with challenges to affordable homeownership through the lens of feminist legal theory.