ABSTRACT
In Sweden, the intensive process of urbanization occurring after World War II presupposed fixed gender roles for the home and for labor. Large housing estates built on city outskirts followed a logic of full access to local municipal and commercial services as well as traffic separation. This planning ideology was considered to be “women-friendly” at the time, but feminist researchers have asserted that it led to a “relegation” of mothers to the sphere of the home. Aside from a few important works, feminist theory has not taken seriously the roles played by this gender division of space and patriarchy in the shaping of living spaces in Swedish modern cities. In this chapter, a special focus will be put on the gender bias of urban policy and how this has evolved into gender-class and gender-race considerations today.
