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Gender and Geography

The geographical analysis of gender, or simply gender geography, has experienced significant growth since its origins in the 1970s. This field of study has developed from early research on spatial patterns of women's activities to more recent analyses of how spatial processes are linked to gender identities and feminist methodology. Gender and other social relations have been incorporated into nearly all areas of the discipline and brought feminist perspectives to issues such as urban planning, globalization, and, more recently, geographic information science (GIScience).

Gender geography seeks to analyze how gendered social processes are linked to space, place, and scale. In this discussion, gender is defined as a social construct mediated by various axes of power that include race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. The social construction of gender has often been compared with sex, which refers to the biological differences between men and women. Geographic analyses of gender underscore how this and other social categories are manifest differently across space and are instrumental in shaping the physical and built environment. Moreover, gender is associated with power relations and access to resources that affect mobility patterns such as commuting and migration as well as divisions of labor in the household and workplace. Feminist geography, a term that is increasingly used in connection with gender geography, also entails elements of praxis or engagement with research in a way that incorporates political action and practice. By exposing social and economic inequalities in the workplace, households, and other areas of society, for example, feminist geography has sought to challenge oppressive forces and provide alternatives that include incorporating women's and gender issues in research projects and advocating for social change that empowers marginalized people. In sum, gender geography has expanded the horizons of geographic inquiry to explore alternative perspectives on spatial dynamics, social processes, and power relations.

Evolution of Gender Geography

Early scholarship in gender and feminist geography provided an important critique of traditional assumptions concerning gender roles and the unequal status of men and women in society. Starting in the mid to late 1970s, studies examined how gendered space affects women's employment, commuting, daily time-space patterns, and other common geographical themes. This early work focused on the differences between men and women as explained by gender roles and relations. For example, gender roles profoundly affect labor market participation and commuting patterns for women as they tend to have greater responsibility for household and caretaking tasks. Consequently, limited employment opportunities affect their ability to hold well-paying, full-time, and more secure jobs.

Studies such as these raised a series of questions that launched both theoretical and empirical research on the intersections of gender and geography. One of these projects developed out of Marxist geography, which is based on critical inquiry of class, capitalism, and uneven development. Radical and socialist feminists have engaged in debates about the relationship between capitalism and patriarchy as separate or interrelated systems. Drawing from this Marxist perspective, feminist geographers such as Jo Foord and Nicky Gregson argued from a realist perspective that gender relations between men and women are built on the necessary conditions of biological reproduction. This position was criticized as ignoring how capitalism affects gender relations. Other dimensions of Marxist feminism developed alongside Walby's Theorizing Patriarchy, whereby patriarchal relations are seen as linked to structures in advanced industrial societies that contribute to inequalities between men and women. Examples of these structures include men's exploitation of women's unpaid household labor, segregation in the workplace, and state policies that privilege men. Overall, the issues raised by Marxist and other socialist feminists in geography expanded the scope of and infused gender perspectives into the discipline.

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