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Chiamaka Eleje
Professor Gina Lawrence
English 1311
June 20, 2014
The Gender Neutral Zone
Gender and space in public arenas go hand in hand. Whether its niche stores, such as
Limited Too or Mandys with their vibrantly colored signs and clothing with 2 Cute on them
or department stores like Dillards and Macys, each public space is formulated and designed
to be tailored towards a particular subject. Are they advertising for men or for women, adults or
teens, are considered when composing a space. This raises the question: is it possible for a public
space to be gender neutral?
Imagine entering through a large oak-wood door into a room decorated with white walls
and carpets that resemble an amalgamation of crushed Crayola crayons. Against these walls are
Thank You Doctor cards and photos from patients ranging from toddlers to senior citizens.
Dark wood padded chairs adorn the floors facing a giant flat screen plasma TV that is mounted
against the wall. An oak table against the back wall is furnished with a wide array of magazines
from People to American Motorcyclist. Enter through another oak-wood door, and
imagine seeing deep red and green accented walls that are crafted into each room within the
office. Gray marble-like stone compliment the countertops, and large dark-brown cabinets lay
against the wall opposite of the accented walls. Bay windows that overlook the university sit
side-by-side throughout the entirety of the room. Now imagine the people that fill this room. Are
they women? Or are they men? How can you differentiate what gender could occupy this space?
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The space I am referring to is my workplace, and is what I believe to be an appropriate
gender neutral space. I work for my father at his office in Las Palmas Medical Center. The office
is comprised of mainly women, with the exception being Roger, a nurse, and my father, the boss.
Inside the main office, four different women (excluding myself) man the work stations, and one
woman is a nurse, along with Roger. It was always intriguing to be inside such a gender neutral
space that was dominated by women, especially with a male owner. Looking at the space from
the outside, it could be a troupe of men who accessed the space, or a brigade of women, and the
visual elements of the space would not have to change. Most public places are designed and
tailored to the owners likes such as my aunts office that occupies the space directly across
from my fathers, but has all white walls in an attempt to be gender neutral. What separates
doctors offices from other public places is that most of them do not have a niche they are
tailored to both genders, therefore need to accommodate both genders comfortably. Even my
gynecologists office has white walls and dark color-specked carpets that are not gender specific,
although the OBGYN is a gender specific office.
All of the employees at the office are Hispanic, as well as a majority of the patients,
which makes the space cohesive, just like the design of the space itself. The office operates more
as a family than as a competition between the sexes. The staff converses in a mix of Spanish and
English, cracking jokes with each other and talking about their weeks. I believe that this is
important in keeping a space neutral. When asked how he felt about being the only male in the
office, Roger responded by saying it never bothered him because it was never made aware to him
that he was the only male. We have known each other for so long, were like a family here, he
commented. It wouldnt matter if I was the only guy, or if there were twelve others. Office
dynamics are an important aspect of gender neutrality within a workspace as well. I asked both
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Roger and Yvette, another nurse, about the dynamics of the office, and how they felt it reflected
within the staff. You would think I would be left out being the only dude around, Roger said.
Were like family. We come from all different ways of life; I am married with children, as well
as Claudia. Yvette has her boyfriend, and Maggie has her daughter. Jessica is the only truly
single one in the office. This creates a more familiar dynamic, and keeps us involved and
engaged in each others lives. It takes maturity to maintain a neutral space. It would be easy to
remove Roger from the rest of the girls, to isolate him for being the only male. The space, as well
as the people that inhabit it, are the defining attributes of a gender neutral zone.
In her article The Gender Blur, Deborah Blum argues that we are born with
predispositions to our sex, but it is society that exaggerates and enforces these dispositions. I
agree with her in that we are born and tailored to act our sex, but these predispositions are not
what truly define who we are as a person. This is exemplified in my research into my workplace,
where such a huge difference in dynamics between males and females is present. Blums
statistical date revealed that men are more aggressive, and that this is caused by the genetic
buildup of the sexes. If this science was so exactly true, how is Roger able to blend and adhere
with the women of the office, and vice-versa? Or is it that Rogers genetic makeup is mutated, or
different than other males that may make him more feminine, and therefore more able to get
along with the women of the office? As I stated previously, I feel it is the maturity of the
individuals in a space that mold it to be one gender, or the other, or gender neutral.
An article called How to create a gender-neutral workplace highlights the ways in
which a business can achieve a gender neutral zone. One of the factors the article states is that a
business should promote a work-life blend culture for men and women which would focus on
continuous improvement, results and delivery, rather than on time spent in the office. My
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fathers office was opened in 2006, and in the same year that the office was established, he won
the Best Doctors Award. I feel this was due to the work-life blend culture that was established
from the beginning. This culture helped maintain the gender neutrality, and established a
connection greater than just staff and boss relations. It is this neutrality, and the ability to
maintain the culture blend between genders, that allowed for the growth and success of my
fathers office. Instead of focusing on the differences between genders, I believe that more
businesses should focus on creating a unity of the genders, and it is through this promotion of
unity that they will yield greater results and success.












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Works Cited
"How to Create a Gender-neutral Workplace." Business Day Live. Sunday Live
Business Times, n.d. Web. 20 June 2014.
<http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/management/2013/01/27/how-to-create-
a-gender-neutral-workplace>.

Blum, Deborah. "The Gender Blur." Utne. Ogden Publications, Inc, Sept.-Oct.
1998. Web. 20 June 2014. <http://www.utne.com/politics/gender-blur-sex-
differences-testosterone-hormones.aspx#axzz35CbCWWTp>.