8.14: Housing and Public Spaces

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 : Los Angeles, CA - The courtyard of the Avila House, built in 1818, features an outdoor kitchen and and 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 : 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?

Figure 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.

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 station 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.

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Voeks, Robert A.

"Are women reservoirs of traditional plant knowledge? Gender, ethnobotany and globalization in northeast Brazil."

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 28, no. 1 (2007): 7- 20.