Gender Divisions in Urban Space: Beyond the Rigidity of Dualist Classifications

The paper discusses the absence of gender from the analysis and understanding of urban development as a result of dichotomies, implicit or explicit, in much of urban research: private space vs public space, home life vs politics, domestic labor vs paid employment, reproduction vs production. It is argued that urban analysis and theorizing have focused almost exclusively on the latter part of such dichotomies, the one associated with men and masculinity. This is an emphasis on and valuation of the adult male's activities and experiences of urban development and a corresponding devaluation of the activities and experiences of women — thereby reproducing gender hierarchies and ways of thinking about them. To consider these questions, a historically and geographically specific context of urban development is presented: the municipality of Helioupolis in the Greater Athens area (Greece). This study helps explain how the boundaries of divisions and dichotomies are transcended in women's everyday lives; how women (and men) are not exclusively identified with either part of dichotomies; but also how dichotomies are often intensified — sometimes by perceptions and practices of women themselves.