What Would a Non-Sexist City Be Like? Speculations on Housing, Urban Design, and Human Work

Abstract

The article focuses on suburbanization in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century, and how this process contributed to the isolation of women from society. The author criticizes the principle of “a woman’s place is in the home” that is implicit in architecture and shows that the very structure of American cities rules out the emancipation of women. The urban environment is designed for housewives and atomized nuclear families. The infrastructure for working women is almost nonexistent. The author points out the need to “develop a new paradigm of home, neighborhood, and city” that would help working women and their families. Both the idea that the problem is an individual one and state policies favoring nuclear families in separate residential units are subjected to criticism. The pursuit of the unattainable ideal embodied in the “American dream” incurs huge costs that require women to work. Under this arrangement ubiquitous traditional households have become impossible, and the urban infrastructure must be updated to meet the needs of working women. The author suggests two ways to solve this problem: optimizing the buildings already in place or constructing new ones. She examines how collective housing has been built in Copenhagen, Hamburg, and London. As a practicing architect she offers her own project — HOMES. The project aims to reorganize the home and housework to advance gender equality.