Women in the Construction of Cities
- urbanNext, October 03, 2018.
- 3570 words.
Essay, expanding design practices, No Density, Politics and economics, Zaida Muxí Martínez
Affordable Housing, Architecture&Gender, Building, Cities, City Planning, Collective city, Community, Cultural agitator, Economy, Educational, Essay, Gender, Global Awareness, Greenery, Healthy city, History, History of Architecture, Humanism, Industrial context, Political implications, Power, Public housing, Residential, Society, Women
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SPAIN, Daphne. (2001) How Women Saved the City. Minneapolis-London: University of Minnesota Press.
The history of public events has been written eliminating women’s contributions. The same has been the case for the history of the construction of cities.
History is written by power, and power is patriarchal. When a values scale is built around an experience, everything that falls outside that perspective remains unknown, rejected and forgotten. Therefore, if the values and experiences of men, through the patriarchal system, are what determine what is good and relatable, then half of humanity is not taken into account. There is no room for other values or experiences or knowledge. This biased assessment is applicable to the stories of all ‘others’ or subalternates: that is to say, ethnic or other minorities, non-whites, non-rich, etc.