Feminizing the White Male City: Women Gaining Access to Colonial Colombo

Chapter 1 maps out how ordinary actors who were not powerful enough to create abstract spaces created lived spaces in late nineteenth-century Colombo. It demonstrates how the Ceylonese, who became subjects of Colombo, gradually nibbled into the city, first transforming it into a contested city and eventually undermining the very structure of the colonial city itself. The story is incomplete; however, without a knowledge of women in the city. Focusing on gender and social power, this chapter examines how women created spaces for their everyday practices in Colombo.1