Landscapes are given meaning by the way they are used. Landscapes also create meaning because they simultaneously affect the way we behave. Feminist geographers have explored the role of landscape both in terms of how the landscape is affected by gender roles and how landscapes influence evolving gender roles. The role of housing and neighborhood design offers a glimpse into these processes.
Figure 10-16: Sichuan, China. This roadside sign reminds passers-by that “It is forbidden to discriminate against, mistreat or abandon baby girls”, a horrifying indication of the human cost that traditional gender roles can have. Source: Wikimedia.
Housing
Since the Industrial Revolution, most houses in the developed world have been designed by architects. Unlike their folk predecessors, the designs were not perfected over generations of trial and error, but rather the designs reflect the experiences and imaginations of the very few – often a single architect, who was often a man. Male architects designed Victorian-era housing to be private, domestic spaces where women were to work and men could recreate. For some feminist geographers, housing plays a critical role in the cultural machinery that reinforces oppressive roles for women. Males have largely designed and built houses, often with little understanding of how to optimize the designs to suit domestic labor. For example, the size and layout of kitchens, the height of sinks or countertops, the location of laundry rooms, and other domestic workspaces were often thoughtlessly designed by men, and as a result, functioned poorly for women. On the other hand, many Victorian-era homes tend to have rooms dedicated to male recreation that are both expansive and well designed.
Some women report that their houses feel like prisons. Architects rarely designed houses with female recreational spaces. Beginning in the Victorian era, builders often positioned houses on lots as far as possible from the street - a public sphere. Men installed gates, high fences (or walls) around perimeters, and designed the yard space to create a safe perimeter, largely to protect the family from other men. Simultaneously, these designs cut women off from the outside world and prevented them from easily sharing burdens with neighbors. During much of the 20th century, automobiles worsened the situation. Houses were increasingly built in suburbs, with ever-larger perimeters separating women from the rest of the world. Often left at home during the day without a car, suburban women found themselves surrounded by endless blocks of housing, cut off from shopping, job opportunities and entertainment options available to those living near the center of the city. Gender roles and suburban neighborhoods of the 1950s America could leave women with little of their own money, a low degree of mobility, and few options to pursue career options once their children had grown. Many women, no doubt, loved this role, but for others, the domestic sphere was stifling. It also left some women dependent on husbands, and, therefore, unable to escape abusive or unhappy marriages.
Figure 10-18: Los Angeles, CA - The courtyard of the Avila House, built in 1818, features an outdoor kitchen and an adjoining courtyard. Multiple houses may have once shared this central courtyard where domestic chores and child rearing tasks could be completed communally.
As a counterpoint, consider for example how the design of courtyard houses, common in many parts of the world, creates a communal central space in which people (women) from multiple families can share work and play. This design provides a safe, monitored area for children and permits those working at home the ability to socialize and share work with neighbors/relatives sharing the same courtyard. Many modern American homes instead have high fences or walls separating neighbors and smallish, non-functional backyards, a sacrifice to enhance the appearance of a large front lawn.
Public Space
While the demands of housekeeping and childrearing may have kept some women chained to the home, a variety of locations refused them admittance, either forcefully or through gender codes. For generations, places, like barbershops, stag bars, fraternal lodges, automotive garages, gambling halls, and some sporting arenas were off-limits to women, especially women who wished to maintain good standing in society. Separate, and not always equal, spaces were reserved for women as well. Beauty parlors, grocery stores, flower shops, and eldercare facilities tended to be spaces for women. This gender segregation often begins at a young age. For example, American toy stores often feature “pink aisles” full of dolls, princess dresses, and miniature kitchens, where little girls are encouraged by the built environment to learn, through play, to be attractive, domestic and motherly – mostly indoor activities. Boys sections of the toy stores have construction equipment, action figures (not dolls) and sports equipment – all of which prepare them for careers outside the home.
Figure 10-19: District of Columbia, Vietnam Women's Memorial. Statues extolling the virtues and the accomplishments of women are rare. What does this suggest about the way our landscapes of remembrance reinforce historical narratives?
In some places, gendered spaces are officially endorsed by governments and society in a way that Americans would find a significant violation of the notion “separate is not equal”. In some countries, where Islamic law specifically sanctions the separation of men and women in public spaces, many locations are off-limits to women, and some are off-limits to men. Changes in the economic systems of many countries in the Muslim world are generating pressure to alter these rules. About a dozen countries have set aside women-only train/subway cars and buses, to combat persistent sexual harassment (groping) of women passengers by male passengers. The presence of such vehicles indicates the ability of the local government to recognize a serious problem, but an inability to effect cultural change. How do you think most American women you know would respond to being groped on a crowded subway here in the US? How would male by-standers respond to witnessing that behavior?
Landscapes of Fear
Gender is a core element in numerous studies of fear, a subfield of investigation that cross-pollinates geography, psychology and gender studies. Several studies have found that women report being afraid of victimization more frequently and to a greater degree than men. Though men are more likely to be the victim of violent crime, women’s fear of crime, especially sexual crimes, often limits where women willingly travel.
Studies have shown that women may avoid outdoor public spaces, like parks, as a result. Oftentimes, there may be no documented reason to avoid specific locations. Perhaps no crime has been ever committed in a park that women fear. So why might women be afraid of a space like a park? Studies show that women use several visual cues to read the landscape. Lighting seems to be an important factor. Women read dark places as dangerous because would-be attackers tend to hide in poorly-lit locations. Other landscape features, like alleys, walls, or recessed spaces that provide concealment also elicit fearful responses. The presence of groups of idle young men, addicts, and prostitutes also creates a sense of fear among many because these characters represent the location of criminal activity. Disorder in the landscape, such as graffiti, litter, and vandalism also evoke fear (See Broken Window Theory in the Crime chapter), and together these various landscape elements keep people, especially women, and their children from spending as much time out-of-doors as they might otherwise. Women, children, the elderly and the infirm, especially in large cities, report feeling trapped in their own homes. Diminished mobility invites a host of other social ills, including ill-health, obesity, psychological disorders, social disengagement, and the loss of community bonds, the last of which is known to raise local crime rates. Landscape disorder (graffiti, vandalism, run-down housing, etc.) has numerous unseen consequences with far greater economic and social costs than most people recognize.
Gas Stations
One of the peculiar manifestations of the way women read the built landscape is the evolution of gas station designs. In the early 20th century, before many women drove cars, gas stations looked very much like garages and were regularly untidy, smelly and unadorned. To make gas stations more appealing to newly mobile women motorists and complaining neighbors, petroleum companies began building stations in the 1920s that evoked English Tudor cottages or used colonial revival style elements. They even put little curtains in the windows. The efficacy of these designs to attract female motorists and increase revenues during the 1920s is unknown. However, during the 1980s, the introduction of massive, detached canopies into the design of filling stations did prove popular with motorists. These massive canopies provide easy access for large trucks, and shelter from rain and bright sun, but stations owners also reported to have increased revenue by attracting motorists, especially women, who presumably felt safer pumping gas under these well-lit canopies at night.
Figure 10-20: Culpepper, VA - This building is an adaptive reuse of a former Union 76 gas station. The Gothic Cottage "look" was one of many strategies to make gas stations more appealing to women in the 20th century by making them look like small houses. Read: National Park Service’s report on the historic preservation of vintage Gas StationsFigure 10-21: Fontana, CA - Gas stations began introducing large canopy designs like this one in the 1980s to permit access to high profile box trucks. Widespread adoption of the design occurred quickly when station operators found the brightly lit canopies attracted more female customers who felt safer pumping gas at these locations at night.
Women and the Environment
Gender roles appear to have a significant effect on how people interact with the physical environment as well. Several studies have shown that American women express greater concern than males do on environmental issues, like air/water quality, climate change, pollution, etc. In some ways, this makes sense because traditional gender roles urge women to be nurturing, and concerned for the welfare of others, especially their own children. Women are less likely to defend polluters’ rights. What is less clear, however, is how gender differences affect policy strategies regarding protecting the environment. Men and women seem to be equally unsure about the steps that should be taken to protect the environment and what personal/economic costs are acceptable in exchange for a healthy environment. It is also unclear if gender differences in environmental attitudes in all countries are equal.
In some countries, the gender gap on environmental issues is more evident, perhaps because gender roles remain far more clearly drawn than they are in the developed world. Several studies in various parts of the world have found women to be critical agents in the creation of sustainable agricultural and forestry practices. In the developing world, women also frequently seem to know more than men about the medicinal characteristics of plants. In both instances, policy formation must be carefully designed to ensure that women are part of any solution to environmental degradation. Unfortunately, women in many parts of the developing world have little land ownership rights and therefore are often unable to effectively enact conservation measures on the lands in which they may live and work.
