20 - Gender and Sexuality in the City

Question 1

According to who, the most human activity is spent on one of the two activities.

Answer 1

-Ann Markusen

1. the production of commodities for market exchange
2. the reproduction of labour power

-both shape and are shaped by urban spaces

Question 2

3 characteristics dominate the spatial form of American Cities. (Ann Markusen

Answer 2

1. Spatial segregation between home and work
2. low-density settlements
3. Dominance of a single family dwellings

Question 3

The spatial form of american cities: Why have cities developed this way?

Answer 3

• advancements in mass production techniques
• popularity of automobiles
• government-backed mortgages
• class and racial segregation

(gender is missing)

Question 4

Markusen research suggests that urban space:

Answer 4

• is inefficient for women’s household work
• results in wasted labour time
• curtails access to jobs and other aspects of urban life

(if this is true it is inefficient for women)

Question 5

Markusen: Why do women continue to choose household production roles in the existing urban structure?

Answer 5

• womens choices are limited
• inaccessibility of jobs and occupational segregation keeps womens wages low and prevents advancement
• low pay reinforces womens roles as supplementary breadwinners for the household (reinforces their primary role: housework)

Question 6

3 ways capitalism has shaped household work?

Answer 6

1. SPATIAL SEGREGATION
   - labour relations are class-based and have racial undertones
   - class and income split in the labour market is reflected in residential spatial segregation
   - as a result women live in suburbia (safe, less racially tense for bringing up children)
2. THE PROFITABILITY OF SUBURBIA
   - capitalist organizations controlling steps of a residential decentralized and single family dwellings profitable
   - high density condominiums could be just as profitable
3. RESTRUCTURING SOCIAL SECURITY
   - reitrees rely on pensions/social security instead of family support
   - less multi-generational households
   - as a result = age segregation (women are losing childcare)

Question 7

What shapes household work?

Answer 7

patriarchy AND capitalism

Question 8

3 ways patriarchy has shaped household work?

Answer 8

1. THE IDEAL HOUSEHOLD
   - man is the worker
   - discouraged extended family or community members from sharing responsibility
   - women discouraged for working for wages
2. INEFFICIENCY OF WOMENS WORK IS NOT PROBLEMATIZED
   - men recieve satisfaction when their wives work is inefficient
   - aspire to be upper-class
3. THE HIGH QUALITY OUTPUT OF PATRIARCHAL HOUSEHOLDS
   - womens household work allows for high quality goods and services from patriarchal households

Question 9

What is Gentrification

Answer 9

It refers to shifts in an urban community lifestyle and an increasing share of wealthier residents and/or businesses and increasing property values

Question 10

Gentrification in reshaping urban space

Answer 10

corresponds to two-income (or more_ professional households that requires both a relatively central urban location (location enhances efficiency)

Question 11

3 ISSUES towards a feminist National Urban Policy

Answer 11

1. CHILD CARE ISSUES
   - 3 solutions: informal responsibility (sharing with community/extended family), public provided child care, private provided child care
2. AVAILABILITY OF HOUSING OPTIONS
   - everyone has different needs
   - more options based on spatial form AND cost
3. POLICIES TO ENHANCE THE EFFICIENCY OF HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION
   - might include more public parks
   - more robust public transportation

Question 12

The gendered relationship to politics

Answer 12

• Manuel Castells
• men (gay) create and territory for their political objectives
• women (lesbian) are radical in their struggle; more concerned with the revolution of values than with institutional power

Question 13

3 ways in which Adler and Brenner question Castells

Answer 13

1. lesbians do not concentrate on a given territory?
2. absence of lesbian enclaves reflect gender differences in interests and values?
3. political activities reflect different relationships to space or in political alliances

Question 14

The Characteristics of Lesbian Neighborhoods

Answer 14

• Adler and Brenner
• low levels of owner-occupied housing
• located in counter-culture areas
• high levels of women living alone and female-headed households

Question 15

4 qualities of urban territory

Answer 15

-Adler and Brenner

1. Residential concentration
2. visibility
3. community activity
4. organization

Question 16

4 differences between gay men and lesbian women

Answer 16

-adler and brenner

1. lesbian women have less access to capital
2. lesbian women are more likely to be the primary caretakers of children
3. lesbian women are more vulnerable to violence
4. politically: gay men organize as gay men, and lesbian women organize as lesbian women