A critical discussion of the urban experience in relation to the issue Essay

A critical discussion of the urban experience in relation to the issue of gender - Essay ExampleMen and wowork forces conception, experience, and use of urban space is different (McDowell, 1983 59). Bondi claims that urban space creates, imposes, reflects and distinguishes divisions between men and womens experiences, control and use of public and private spaces in urban environments (1998 161). The study of gender and geography has, since the late 1970s been interested in the differing experiences of men and women in the urban center. For example, feminist geographers including McDowell (1983) and Darke (1996) have investigated how land use in the city has impacted on the way men and women live their lives, and how the role of gender impacts on the day to day experiences of men and women within the urban environment. This essay aims to explore how gender roles are played out within urban spaces. Women writing on cities have arrived at differing conclusions (Darke, 1996 88). Wilson (2001) for example experiences cities as exciting and liberating public environments and an evasion from patriarchal imposed identities. However, she also acknowledges that in recent years feminist have argued that there could never be a female flanuerurban view was at all times represented from the point of view of the male glance in painting and photographs men voyeuristically stare, women are passively subjected to the gaze (Wilson, 1992 56). The differing viewpoints between feminist geographers themselves highlight the complex nature relating to studying gender in the urban environment. ... Male domination led to men being the rulers, ending makers, generals and cultural leaders. Women were often subjected to domestic roles, hidden from public space. The introduction of womens voting rights and gender equality laws went some way to rebalance gendered experience of the city as the 20th Century drew to a close. However, even though legal barriers to womens access to jobs and particular buildings have been removed, women are still excluded and made to tincture uncomfortable in public space (Darke, 1996 92). For example, Cockburn (1983) highlights how women receive not so subtle behavioural signals that tell them they are trespassing on the territory of men, e.g. skirt chaser whistles on the street, sexual harassment in the work place and street posters depicting half naked women. Various authors including Darke (1996 88) and Lewis et al (1989 215) have highlighted that zoning patterns, ground on stereotypical gender roles have created divisions between gendered experiences of the city, in which men control public space, hence becoming more specialised and important comp unmatchednts of personal identity in the public sphere, whilst women are confined to private spaces. This is emphasised by Bondi an important association remains between masculinity, public space and the city, on the one hand, and between femininity, private space, and the suburbs on the other hand (1998 162). The city of zones therefore compartmentalises activities such as work, leisure, travel and home life. Women are primarily seen as wives and mothers, whilst men are viewed as the breadwinner, whose job it is to go out into the public realm to earn a living and provide for his family. Darkes (1996)