ancient cities

302 Gender Equity Planning
most progressive constitutional protections against
discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sex,
pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin,
color, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion,
conscience, belief, culture, language, and birth. It
remains to be seen how such legal changes are
reshaping the nature of gendered spaces in this
country. In 2005, after many years of civil war in
Liberia, a woman was elected president, the first
female head of state in an African country. Once
again, a gendered change in political leadership is
likely to lead to a shift in the basic understanding
of the gendered nature of government and its associated
spaces.
These processes of social change are dynamic
and nonlinear, reflecting changes in the social, economic,
and cultural institutions of power. When
sociocultural processes no longer demonize gender
and gender variance, a broad array of gendered
behaviors in public spaces may be possible and the
gendered nature of urban spaces may be reduced.
Petra L. Doan
See also Beguinage; Gender Equity Planning; Urban
Theory
Further Readings
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the
Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Hayden, Delores. 1984. Redesigning the American
Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and Family.
New York: W. W. Norton.
Herdt, Gilbert, ed. 1994. Third Sex, Third Gender:
Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History.
New York: Zone Books.
Johnson, Louse. 2006. “Browsing the Modern
Kitchen—A Feast of Gender, Place, and Culture
(Part 1).” Gender, Place, and Culture 13(2):
123–32.
Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The Production of Space. Oxford,
UK: Blackwell.
Massey, Doreen. 1994. Space, Place, and Gender.
Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
McDowell, Linda. 1983. “Towards an Understanding of
the Gender Division of Urban Space.” Environment
and Planning, D: Society and Space 1:59–72.
Mills, Amy. 2007. “Gender and Mahalle (Neighborhood)
Space in Istanbul.” Gender, Place, and Culture
14(3):335–54.
Mills, Sara. 1996. “Gender and Colonial Space.” Gender,
Place, and Culture 3(2):125–47.
Miranne, Kristine B. and Alma H. Young, eds. 2000.
Gendering the City: Women, Boundaries, and Visions
of Urban Life. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Spain, Daphne. 1992. Gendered Spaces. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press.
Ge n d e r eq u i t y pl a n n i n G
Gender equity planning highlights the effects of
planning on males and females, as well as the
impacts of men and women on planning itself.
Gender refers to the subjective, dichotomous characterization
of individuals as being male/masculine
or female/feminine whereas sex refers to the
categorization as males and females based purely
on biological characteristics (chromosomes, genitalia,
etc.). The two terms, gender and sex, are
often confused in discussions of gender equity
planning, and the idea that the latter is about
more than biology is important to remember.
Masculine and feminine characteristics are often
thought to be socially constructed; what counts as
meaningful gendered traits changes with the times.
Jobs that were once seen as appropriate only for
men, such as planning, are now available as
acceptable choices for women. Physical traits, such
as hair length and musculature, vary, too, according
to their perceived relevance in classifying an
individual as being feminine or masculine. In this
way, practices such as gender equity planning
become increasingly complex the more carefully
one explores the concept and the more finely key
distinctions are made.
If gender pertains to societal notions of what it
means to be female or male, equity is concerned
with fairness in terms of how those who are labeled
as male or female are treated. Fairness may mean
being treated equally, or it may mean that unequal
practices are called for to create a more equitable
situation. An interest in equity also implies an
interest in, and commitment to, correcting injustices.
Thus, gender equity planning is about preventing
or remedying existing or potential injustices
in cities and regions. Like gender categories, ideas
about what counts as an injustice are not static,
and so whether something (e.g., females not being
able to own property or sign a contract) is an