Gender, work, and space

About this book

Gender, Work, and Space explores how boundaries get constructed between women and men, and among women living in different neighborhoods. The focus is on work, the segregation of men and women into different occupations, and variations in women's work experiences in different parts of the city. The book argues that these differences are grounded and constituted in and through space, place, and situated social networks. This qualitative and quantitative study of a contemporary city establishes that many women, especially those with heavy household responsibilities, are dependent on extremely local employment opportunities. Women's dependence on locally available jobs focuses attention on the existence of different employment districts throughout the city. The argument is that social, economic, and geographic boundaries are overlaid and intertwined. As employers locate firms to seek out labor with particular social characteristics, social and occupational differences are mapped in place. Neighborhood-based differences in community resources, occupational opportunities, labor processes, scheduling of work, and cultures of parenting affect the ways that families order their lives and that gender relations are enacted in daily life. . Gender, Work, and Space contributes to debates about the geography of labor market segmentation, to our understanding of sex-based occupational segregation, and, in the close attention given to the construction of social, geographic, economic, and symbolic boundaries in ordinary lives, provides a counterbalance to the focus on mobility within contemporary feminist theory.