ABSTRACT
Introduction: gender, space and mobilities As identified when introducing our ‘gender-urban-slum interface’ in Chapter 2, connectivities and intersectionalities between spaces of different types and scales are of vital significance in understanding gendered experiences and rights within cities, and perhaps nowhere is this more pertinent than in questions of mobility. When women’s and girls’ freedoms are curtailed at the micro-level of their persons or domestic space, for example, this often impacts, as well as is impacted by, gendered restrictions or exclusions in more macro-level arenas, such as neighbourhoods and urban areas as a whole. Accordingly, a complex array of overlaps between ‘private’ and ‘public’ barriers to female movement presents itself. As outlined in the preceding chapter, women and girls often face heavy constraints on their spatial mobility due to the fears and insecurities associated with gender-based violence. However in the context of movements around cities (and slums), a host of other factors – ranging from socialised hegemonic gender divisions and identities to gender-blind (or gender-prejudicial) urban planning – comes into the frame.
