Gendering Residential Space: From Squatter and Slum Housing to the Apartment Estates in Turkish Renewal Projects

Abstract

This article argues for the need to understand gendered dimensions of space in a contextualized way. It investigates residential space in three different types of housing settings of the poor, namely, a peripheral squatter neighborhood coded by rurality, a central slum neighborhood coded by criminality, and the housing estates in squatter/slum renewal projects coded by middle–class urbanity. Based on two field studies conducted in Ankara, Turkey's capital, it challenges the feminine–private versus masculine–public dichotomy: With women's presence inside the neighborhood, the squatter area was a “feminine space,” whereas, with the violent control of neighborhood spaces by local men, the slum area was a “masculine space.” Through its association with urban modernity, the public/private divide was enforced in the housing estates. While in the first housing estate, women's informal practices in its public spaces “feminized” and “ruralized” the estate, in the second housing estate, it made women feel safe inside apartments.