ABSTRACT
In this chapter I step back from town planning and explore the gendered nature of planning. It is a key ideology, dominant philosophy and way of doing things in the twentieth century, the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age (Casson, 1978). I am not seeking to prove again that patriarchy exists (q.v. Appendix II, p. 197) but seek to explore its influence on women as instrumentalized through planning. In particular, I highlight how the planning mentality manifests dichotomized thinking patterns, dividing public from private realms to the disadvantage of women and other minority groups. I will illustrate this tendency with reference to socio-economic, population, third-world, green, and beaux-artes planning. I include the latter to show that characteristics which might be attributed to a modern scientific mentality are also associated with historical forms of planning, which manifest the ‘same’ patriarchal desire for order through division.
