GENDER & SPACES

Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of male and female social relations history has been the relation between the public and the private, or the political and the personal, or the sphere of power and the domestic sphere. Traditional political theory has seen them, again, as a dichotomy of mutually exclusive terms, identified with women's 'sphere' and men's 'world'.

Historical Evidence..
Savagery Both sexes were equal. Barbarism Men control over agriculture & animal husbandry. Civilization Private property, Inheritance, Control on genes thus concept of power and property emerged.

Greeks and Romans had concept of separate realms/spaces. Aristotle, .Man is by nature an animal intended to live in polis/public realm. Private realm is a place for family comfort. Family is a place for training conduct, morality- passing down traditions. The men living in the private realm functioning as father, son, husband & brother do not take these roles into public life.

 Villages Separate spaces Town/Market place Mainly for men business activity. A few women (rich or prostitutes who are vulnerable). Labor/poor are brought in to serve. Industrialization Cities Men, Rich community both sexes. Working class, business community, governing class.

 Colonization is identified with slavery, oppression and exploitation of both sexes. As British criticized sati, arranged marriages, purdah etc, But forgot what they were doing back home with women. Colonial men are equal to white women ( Nigers, Indian etc slaves) Nationalism Cultural superiority was argued by keeping women in private. Sanctity of national. local culture. 19th Century: Middle class women found their spaceseducation, training, vote, writers, religious quakers Imperialism/First World, Third world..Multi national, Exploitation of resources, Big cities Postmodernism: Cyberspace, Computer is providing interface between public and private Limitations of ICT

Exploitation of State/ Government:

- China: One child policy - Tajikistan: Mother Glory - Pakistan: Family planning - Human rights violations which happen in private sphere are invisible or family matter and thus beyond the preview of the state. So abuses done in the name of family , religion, culture are hidden by the so called sanctity of the private sphere.

Concept of Gender Space/Sphere/Realm:

Physical: Limits, Boundaries, Living,
Mobility, Rural, Urban

Social Interaction: Religion, Law ,

Architecture, Environment, Politics, Business, Skills, Profession, employment/occupation, Sports

Ideological: Expression, Language,

Thought process, Vision

 It is a complex relation between domination and subordination, between power and powerlessness. The boundaries between public and private shift significantly over time and cross-culturally. Private Property attained by maleswomen brought in to ensure that mens belongings stayed within the biological offspring, bloodline.

Public Workplace Paid Society Political Culture Rational

Private Home Family Unpaid Apolitical Nature Irrational Place of Caring/nurturing/supporti ng Place of violence (not always), Isolation, exploitation of womens reproductive abilities. Lacks equality

 Dependency of the public on the private Private work ensures survival for the public arena Private realm do not need decision making so is governed by instincts Justice, equality and freedom are possible only in public sphere State and the civil society has no room for private realmJustice and equality are impossible for private sphere (Hegel) Patriarchal family unit itself focuses on its concerns justice in the private realm on household income-thus families are treated as social and economic units

Feminist critique
Simone de Beauvior, argues that women have been trained to be more concerned about their bodies than their minds. The private sphere is to keep women out of the mental/social/political/public interaction. But the public sphere demands intellectual capacities.

Women exploration to get access to the public realm by gaining: Intellectual power Material power Skills Rights movement has encouraged women to test and move to all what was forbidden.

Public spaces are social spaces and they change with time. As when the gender roles change meaning of spaces also transform. So Public space gives you identity, it is product of time and both males and females make sense of their space with experiences. Gender and space is a multi-dimensional concept.