Feminist geography
Encyclopedia : F : FE : FEM : Feminist geography
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Its principal focus of study is geographic differences in gender relations and gender equality. In addition to its analysis of the real world, it also critiques existing geographical studies, reflecting on the geographical nature of the female experience.
A simple example would be to consider the way that urban planning has a gender dimension with the expectation that men travel to a distant location for employment while women are involved with child care, basic shopping, and domestic functions in a suburban location. Why have cities evolved in this way, why have New towns been planned in this way, and by whom and with what ideology?
Another illustration of this approach to geography is to study gender differences in terms of personal access, mobility and safety, especially in respect to the design and use of urban space and open places such as public parks and footpaths. The experience of walking alone through a city centre late at night or public park even in daytime is likely to be different for males and females and also for people of different ages, cultures and so on.
In this respect feminist geography is part of a broader postmodern approach to the subject which is not primarily concerned with the development of conceptual theory in itself but rather focuses on the real experiences of individuals and groups in their own localities, upon the geographies that they live in within their own communities.
However, feminist geography is not limited to the local scale. One example of a global topic of feminist geography research is the worldwide migration of women from the Third World to the First World to perform domestic labor and sex work.
Further reading
- Linda Mcdowell. Gender, Identity and Place: understanding feminist geographies, Cambridge : Polity Press, 1999 - introduction
- Companion to Feminist Geography (Blackwell Companions to Geography), ed. by Joni Seager, Lise Nelson, Blackwell Publishers 2004, ISBN 1405101865
See also
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