ancient cities

964 Women and the City
the southern states of large numbers of African
Americans in the 1930s to 1960s, cities changed.
African American women were newly incorporated
in sectors of the economy previously reserved for
men or white women. The growth of the Latino
population since 1980, as a result of both birth rates
and migration, has also helped to shape urbanization
processes. The magnitude of social inequality in
terms of economic development opportunities, environmental
degradation, limited housing choices,
and safety for women, especially women of color,
has fostered important community activism, often
led by women.
Economic Development Opportunities
Women have been increasingly important in the
growth and competitiveness of cities in the global
market, yet their contributions are unrecognized,
and they still earn less money than men. In the
United States, Latina women earn 56 cents, African
American women 62 cents, and White women 72
cents for ever dollar White men earn. The glass
ceiling for women and opportunities in cities are
higher and better then in rural areas by virtue of
density and diversity, but factors still stymie the
way women can advance to economic self-sufficiency.
These inequalities have impacted the daily life of
women in cities, and women have responded by
organizing and influencing cities. Through education
programs, through informal work in small
businesses or home-based income-generating activities,
women have been creating opportunities for
themselves and their families. They have done this
often while performing full-time unpaid work in the
home, such as housework and child and elder care.
One of the ways that women have organized
around economic development has focused on
green jobs in the context of environmental racism
in urban areas. Women organizing in cities to promote
environmental justice have proven to be
important. Women for Economic Justice is a group
in Chicago that works to support economic independence
for women of color, who may also be
survivors of violence. The organization supports
small businesses, social purpose business, and
cooperative development through a series of workshops
on financial literacy, domestic violence,
co-op development, and economic analysis. The
women in these groups have formed co-ops that
use recycled material to make bags, a Mexican
catering service using organic ingredients, and
plants for green roofs.
Madres del Este de Los Angeles Santa Isabel
(MELA) in Los Angeles was founded in response
to the proposed construction of a state prison in
Boyle Heights, an East Los Angeles neighborhood.
Members became active in a series of outreach
projects and programs concerning their community,
including the Lanser Project, in which MELA
participated in halting a proposed municipal waste
incinerator in East Los Angeles. In addition, the
group organized against the building of an oil
pipeline that would have gone three feet under an
East Los Angeles Junior High School. They also
have a mentor task force and a scholarship program,
which help students attain higher education,
preparing them for better economic opportunities
in the workforce.
Majora Carter in the South Bronx of New York
has raised millions of dollars to support redevelopment
from below. Her focus has been environmental
justice and how to use the environment to “green
the ghetto” with green jobs and green spaces. She
has been an incredible force tying economic and
environmental development together.
Housing Policy and the
Feminization of Poverty
At the turn of the nineteenth century, housing was
unregulated, which led to congestion and substandard
housing as cities expanded with industrialization.
Women championed issues of housing for the
poor and set up settlement housing. From 1929 to
1949, during the growing influence of the automobile
and zoning, which separated industrial, retail,
and residential land uses, suburbanization quickened.
The result was poor economically isolated
women in the urban cores and middle-class women
physically isolated in the suburbs—the feminization
of poverty.
From 1949 to 1981, urban renewal policies and
projects had a negative impact on poorer communities,
with the result that the poor were warehoused
in public housing, contributing to their
increasing isolation physically, economically, and
socially. A majority of public housing tenants were
single women with children; they had no opportunity
to be financially independent.