ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way in which women are changing neighborhoods to meet the needs of their changing life-styles. In the flush of raised consciousness that was the first stage of the Women’s Movement, many young women making personal location choices avoided suburban neighborhoods. Women’s acceptance of their roles as full-time homemakers reached a peak in the 1950s. Since then, women have made many changes in life-styles. A young woman could avoid the housewives’ suburbs, and while she was studying or working, coupled or single, she could meet her needs for belonging and for a community among friends at college and university, in special activity groups, and in the work-place. Women moving from either home or career to more encompassing life-styles need help. The establishment of drop-in centers and school-based groups means that many of the networks are neighborhood based and have present and potential benefits for neighborhood residents beyond the group itself: children, and singles outside nuclear families.
