ABSTRACT

Feminist concerns focus on both the role played by social relations, especially those of gender, in the production and reproduction of urban form and the extent to which the social position of women has improved with urbanisation. Urbanisation is also associated with the development of urbanism as a way of life and with cities becoming the engines of growth of the economy. Women have made numerous attempts to create their own urban spaces, from nunneries and women's housing co-operatives to lesbian bars. Postmodern feminists, such as Elizabeth A. Wilson and others, have emphasised the economic, social and sexual freedoms and opportunities that have arisen from urbanisation. Many feminists have argued that urban form, in particular the mid-twentieth-century divide between city centre and suburbs, has served to increase women's subordination by facilitating the removal of job opportunities from women and relegating them to the private sphere of the home.