Gender, Class, and Urban Space: Public and Private Space in Contemporary Urban Landscapes

Informed by feminist debates about the distinction between public and private in western urban societies, this article examines some urban landscapes created or transformed in recent decades with a view to assessing the extent to which emancipatory conceptions of gender are apparent. Evidence drawn from the city of Edinburgh shows how divisions between public space and private space operate at different scales and take different forms in different neighborhoods. These forms illustrate how gender and class are interwoven in demarcations between and connotations of public and private spaces. In one of the neighborhoods examined, some breaking down of traditional gender connotations of public and private spaces is detected, a process that is closely associated with privileged middle-class lifestyles.