ABSTRACT
Situating women in the intellectual discourse on cities is often marginal. Western feminist scholars who do focus on gender issues treat poor women in the Global South as subjects in need of development and enlightenment. But an understanding of their realities is crucial instead of prescribing solutions to poverty. In the Philippines, the larger economic world system pulls Filipino women to work abroad and those left behind who can’t find formal jobs end up in the informal sector. The intersectionality of gender and informality is a complex phenomenon. The purpose of this narrative is not to offer an extensive analysis but to illustrate the life conditions of women vendors in the Global South. The core of the book lies in this chapter where I describe the five place-nodes in terms of their interplays with shifting people patterns, site materiality, and meanings and symbols that constitute Baguio’s urbanism. The women vendors take center stage in these dynamic constellations of place and behavior details. . The last part of the chapter focuses on the health aspects of place-nodes, with a special section that presents eight personal accounts of the lives and health conditions of women vendors.
