ABSTRACT
This chapter is a theoretical and historical study of the early nineteenth-century street
as a spatial representation of gendered identities. My research draws on approaches
adopted in various other disciplines, but makes particular reference to the political
and methodological concerns of architectural history and feminism. Despite disci-
plinary differences, feminist analysis of gender and space has tended to focus on
critiquing the paradigm of the separate spheres (the binary which describes space as
two mutually exclusive and hierarchically placed categories – the male public realm
of the city and the female private realm of the home). Feminists involved in 'decon-
structing' this binary have shown its ideological underpinnings in patriarchy and
capitalism. This chapter is informed by these strategies, but moves further in
suggesting that the gendering of space should be conceptualised through urban move-
ment – through display, consumption and exchange.
