Routledge International Studies of Women and Place

Gender, Work and Space explores how boundaries are constructed between women and men, and among women living in different neighbourhoods. 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, constituted in and through, space, place, and situated social networks. A case study of a contemporary city establishes that many women are dependent on extremely local employment opportunities, expecially those with heavy household responsibilities. 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; and as employers locate firms to seek out labour with particular differences in community resources, occupational opportunities, labour processes, scheduling of work and cultures of parenting affect the ways that families order their lives and how gender relations are enacted in daily life. Gender, Work and Space contributes to debates about the geography of labour 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.