Feminism and Geography

Author(s): S. R. Bowlby, J. Foord and S. Mackenzie

Source: Area, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1982), pp. 19-25
Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)
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Feminism and geography
S. R. Bowlby, University of Reading,J. Foord, University of Kent and
S. Mackenzie, University of Sussex
Summary. It is suggested that successful development of geographic theory requires us to consider the
issues raised by the separation of women's and men's social roles. Such development would be aided by
knowledge of current feminist theory. Some recent theoretical writing on geography and women is
examined and its links with currentfeminist social analyses are explored.
The geographical literature on women has grown rapidly over the past decade, as has
awareness of the problems facing womnen within the profession. There has also been
considerable discussion over appropriate approaches and areas for research in
geography. The ' relevance ' debate of the late sixties to early seventies and the
arguments over neo-Marxist and phenomenological theories questioned the definition
of geography as solely
' the science of spatial relations ' and reintroduced people
environment relations as a central concern of the discipline. However, the work on
women and geography has had little impact on these arguments (for example, see
Johnston, 1979). One probable reason for this lack of impact is that the literature on
women and geography is largely descriptive and empirical.
The feminist critique challenged geographers to analyse the part played by gender
role differentiation in people-environment relations. However, this challenge was not
met. In a fashion similar to many geographers' reaction to the issues of poverty a.d
racism, the impetus was diverted into studies directed at documenting
'
geographical
'
features of the inequality of women as these are expressed, for example, in spatial
patterns (Lee, Stewart and Winter, 1979); in access to work (Ferguson, 1976); in
variations in mobility (Guiliano, 1979; Hanson and Hanson, 1976; Helms, 1974;
Lopata, 1980; Palm, 1981); or in environmental perception (Everitt, 1974). Questions
raised by gender inequality have been dealt with through studies of
'
spatial equality
'
(Loyd, 1978) or by measuring the diffusion of undefined 'raised consciousness'
(Libbee, 1978; Libbee and McGee, 1979). Other work applies established geographic
methodology to so-called
'
women's issues
'
(Fuller, 1973; Brown et al., 1972).
Such work has played an important part in demonstrating the problems of discrimi
nation and disadvantage faced by women and the concrete conflicts arising from
women's roles. But, whilst it has pointed to some of the proximate causes of these
problems, it has only rarely been informed by a theoretical perspective which might
point to more fundamental causes. It has largely been based on the dominant positivist,
liberal approach and directed at suggesting institutional reforms.
We consider that the successful development of geographic theory has been
hindered by the failure to examine the questions raised by the existence of gender role
differentiation, questions concerning, for example, the spatial structure of cities,
patterns of employment, community organisation, and resource allocation. Most
geographers know little of feminist theory; our concern here is to encourage discussion
of feminist analyses of society amongst geographers by examining some recent
theoretical writing on geography and women and exploring its links with current
feminism.
19
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20 Feminism and geography
For pragmatic reasons we concentrate on the British situation. Moreover, since the
growth of feminist theory has been influenced by and has in turn affected political
practice, we discuss their development in relation to one another. Thus, in the first
section we describe the Women's Movement in Britain during the 1970s and the
theoretical divisions arising within it. In the second section we look at theoretical
literature in geography written over the same period and influenced by feminism,
paying particular attention to British writing.
The Women's Movement in Britain
Beginnings of a movement: The disruption of the 1970 Miss World contest was one of
the first public acts in Britain in the name of women since the
suffragettes. Several
disparate women's groups had sprung up in late 1968 and 1969. Many of these groups
worked within the trade unions for equal pay and training opportunities whilst others
organised around specific issues such as abortion. Women concerned in left wing
politics, as well as lesbians, finding few sympathetic responses within existing political
groups, organised their own. These groups of women, encouraged partly by news of
women's ' struggles ' in North America and West Germany, began to develop contacts
through the new '
Women's Liberation Movement
'
(WLM).
However, it was not until the first WLM conference in Oxford in March 1971 that
the movement established specific demands: equal pay; equal education/opportunity;
24 hour childcare; free contraception and abortion on demand. In the past ten years
three more demands have been added to this list-legal and financial independence;
freedom to define our own sexuality; freedom from rape and male violence against
women. Although many local groups continued to operate as small collectives, without
formal central leadership, national campaigns developed around all seven demands.
Debates over the demands also formed the basis from which theoretical analyses
developed. These analyses changed the British women's movement and theoretical
differences emerged between radical feminists and socialist feminists. Geographical
writing on women has also been influenced by this division.
The first essays of the WLM in Britain, like its first demands, reflect the concern
with women's inferior economic position (Wandor, 1972). But soon this 'woman
question ' was replaced by
'
feminist questions
'
about the origins of such gender
inequality (Hartmann, 1979). The early theoretical debate concerned the concept of
patriarchy' through which feminists hoped to explain women's general subordination
and the specific form that subordination takes within the family and thus to create a
theory of sexual oppression applicable throughout history to all cultures (McDonough
and Harrison, 1979). This goal has been an integral part of the radical, rather than the
socialist feminist tradition.
Radical Feminism: Kate Millet's Sexual politics represents
'
one of the first serious
theoretical attempts to come to grips with the specific nature of women's oppression'
(Beechey, 1979). It has also provided the theoretical basis of radical feminism. Millet
asserts that our political and social structures are patriarchal because they are governed
by a double subordination-female by male and younger male by older male. Class
differences are considered less significant than these gender based power relations. The
family is central to this analysis since it is within this institution that patriarchal ties
are reinforced. For feminist practice this thesis has led to demands in which men are
seen as the sole oppressors and therefore to be excluded from radical feminist politics.
Indeed, some women see liberation only in a society of complete gender separation and
this has led to demands for concomitant changes in the built environment (Foord and
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Feminism and geography
21
Mackenzie, 1981). Separation is an extreme feminist position but there are also women
who work in women-only groups and campaigns, such as Women's Aid and Rape Crisis
Centres, who see this exclusionary policy as a strategy for supporting women in an
overtly sexist and violent society, although they do not aim permanently to segregate
women's and men's lives.
Socialist Feminism: The use of patriarchy as a universal theory of women's
subordination has been criticised as inadequate by socialist feminists (Ehrenreich and
English, 1979; Barrett, 1980). Instead, socialist feminism has attempted to locate
women's oppression within an analysis of class and the relations of production. These
attempts, however, have been hindered by a traditional Marxism which has tended to
reduce gender relations to those of economics. Engels attributed female subordination
to the development of private property and patrilineal inheritance (Engels, 1968). He
therefore proposed that women's legal and financial emancipation would be achieved
by their entry into waged labour. Full liberation for women as well as men would then
be gained by class struggle. But socialist feminists consider that this denies other forms
of gender oppression.
Christine Delphy (1977), for example, tried to redefine Engels' view of the nature of
women's subordination and the nature of women's liberation to include an analysis of
patriarchy. In her exposition of 'materialist feminism' she argued that women's
oppression occurs within two autonomous ' modes of production '-the industrial mode
and the family mode-which embody capitalist and patriarchal relations respectively.
Michele Barrett and Mary McIntosh (1979) question her implication that all women,
because of their gender, form one class, although Delphy has defended her position
(Delphy, 1980). To Barrett (1980), Delphy's approach denies both existing class
structure, in which women's subordination varies with class position, and the historical
specificity of patriarchal relations.
A more fruitful part of socialist feminism has been its concern with women's role in
the 'reproduction of labour power ' and the need to analyse the economic role of female
domestic as well as waged labour (CSE, 1976). Some work has also been directed at
examining the role of the state in sustaining women's subordinate position in the family
and the labour force (CIS. Women in the 80's). However, realising the inadequacy of
explanations which attribute women's inequality directly to the
'
needs
'
of capital,
some writers have turned to the concept of ideology. Thus Barrett (1980) attempts to
explain the continuation of womuen's oppression through class and patriarchal relations
using an Althusserian concept of ideology to analyse changing ideas about feminine
and masculine sexuality.
Socialist feminists consider it vital for women and men to work together in political
activity; however, they also support the strategy of women-only groups and centres.
Their analyses stress the political relevance of issues relating to the reproduction of
labour power. Thus, the authors of Beyond the fragments have suggested that the
collective group organisation characteristic of the WLM would be a means of uniting
both men and women on the left over issues of productioin and reproduction in local
and national politics. There is now a network of local 'Beyond the fragments
'
groups
trying to adhere to such principles.
Geography and Feminism
The conceptual split has had a profound effect on both practice and theory in the
WLM. It has also affected the way in which these issues have developed
in
geography.
Recognition of the 'women question
'
was initially stronger amongst American than
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22 Feminism and geography
British geographers and prompted both new academic work and activity to improve the
position of women within the profession. But by the mid 1970s some
geographers in
Britain were also turning their attention in this direction.
Patriarchy and capitalism: In a seminal article, in the first Antipode edited in
Britain,
Pat Burnett attempted to outline the rudiments of a feminist perspective. She attacked
'logical empiricism' and claimed that' Marx's theory provides an appropriate starting
point for the analysis of societal change and its impact on the urban spatial system '
(Burnett, 1973, 58). But the Marxism to which Burnett appealed was only just
emerging in the geographical literature. The desire of Marxist geographers
to counter
the idealism and fragmentation of ' status quo' theories (Peet, 1977; Harvey, 1973,
Section II), led them to concentrate on the ' materialist '
processes of production and
consumption. These concerns appeared indifferent, or even hostile to the emerging
feminist concern with '
reproduction of labour power' and the oppressions of everyday
life.
Burnett advocates an expansion of the Marxist perspective through introducing
'socially designated power relations '. These she defines primarily
in terms of the
extant radical feminist analysis of the ' male psychology of
power', arguing that ' It
may not even be too sweeping to view the whole modern urban spatial system in terms
of behaviours generated by this psychology' (Burnett, 1973, 60). Thus, Burnett
proposed an alternative structure to economistic Marxism, that of gender based power
relations. In common with early feminist writing, the proposed feminist perspective
on human environmental relations offered two parallel theoretical structures
'patriarchy
'
and
'
capitalism '.
This discussion developed in two divergent directions. The first response was
influenced primarily by the radical feminist discussions of gender differences and was
developed within the emerging humanist/phenomenological approach to geography. It
reified the differences between men and women, and assumed that a ' feminine '
perspective and the study of women had the inherent power to alter geographic
thought. Burnett's original discussion of the' male psychology of power
'
was extended
in a lengthy critique of logical empiricism as a
'
male ' mode of analysis. She proposed
introducing
'
female interpersonal modes of thought' into geographical writing and
their synthesis with '
analytical male modes
'
as a means of
'
transcending the
polarisation of knowledge
'
(Burnett, 1976, 396). In America Ann Buttimer also
encouraged more
'
feminine
'
and sensitive modes of analysis (Buttimer, 1976), while
other discussions argued that the study of women can transform the teaching and
learning process (Libbee and Libbee, 1978) and humanise geographic writing and
research (Larimore, 1978; Loyd, 1978).
These developments have been both enlightening and provocative. But the writers
have treated all gender differences not as social constructions, but as natural
phenomena. They suggest that their ultimate aim of an
'
androgynous' society can
somehow-be achieved by counterposing
'
feminine
'
to the prevailing
'
masculine
'
values. The priority of gender was opposed by the second approach which concentrated
on the traditional concerns of Marxism, assuming that questions of gender were, or
could be, contained within them. This was explicit in Irene Bruegel's response to
Burnett's earlier article, in which, following Engels, she says '. . . women's oppression
(as well as the existing structure of cities) in this society is based on the primacy of
private property
'
(Bruegel, 1973, 63).
Production and reproduction of
labour)power:
A new attempt to analyse women's
inequality and human-environment relations was initiated by Jacky Tivers. She
proposes that we
'
begin with women themselves ', and
'
explore the structural basis
'
of
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Feminism and geography 23
the inequalities in women's position (Tivers, 1978a, 304). Tivers goes beyond the
ahistorical and implicitly biologically-determined category 'woman' and asks what
social relations define the activities of the people who occupy this category, and how
do these activities relate to women's spatial behaviour? In another paper (Tivers, 1977)
she draws on the concept of constraint as developed in the empirical studies of
women's spatial constraints, and the space-time budget literature (Palm and Pred,
1976; Hagerstrand, 1970). She incorporates within these approaches the concept of
' gender role constraint
'
as the 'overriding influence in women's lives '. She suggests
that this gender role constraint stems from nuclear family structure and the role of the
family in capitalism as a ' mechanism by which labour power is reproduced '. She urges
that the examination of this constraint inform analysis of the social-spatial activities of
women (Tivers, 1978b, 26).
Responses to Tivers' articles followed and expanded on this suggestion. Drawing on
the socialist feminist approach, Jo Foord (1980a) and Suzanne Mackenzie (1980a)
argue that women's dual roles as domestic and wage workers form the basis of the
constraints on women's position. The social development and change in this dual role
as well as the associated development and change of environmental form and relations
can be understood through a critical use of historical materialism. Thus, Mackenzie
argues that
'
the development of distinct and functionally specialised residential and
industrial commercial areas in the contemporary city' reflects the separation of
production and the reproduction of labour, and that changes in reproduction and
production structure both gender relations and women's and men's relations to the
environment (Mackenzie, 1980a, 48). Some recent work continues to develop this
perspective in discussions of the interrelation of women's roles and the development of
cities (McDowell, 1980b; Foord, 1980b; Mackenzie, 1980b). Mackenzie has recently
argued that the separation of production and reproduction of labour power is reflected
in all areas of life including the division of political action between the spheres of
domestic and wage labour (Mackenzie, 1980b).
This work is only beginning to emerge but we consider this perspective has the
potential to transcend the analytic separation of '
patriarchy
' and '
capitalism '. It
replaces the model of two separate structures with a discussion of gender relations as
constituted by women and men in the process of producing society's goods and services
and reproducing the labour force. This process involves the appropriation and
alteration of the environment. As Mackenzie (1980b) has suggested, this perspective
should contribute to the growing interest amongst geographers in developing analyses
of political and ideological activity using a historical-materialist approach.
Conclusion
We consider that current attempts to change geographic perspectives on human
environment relations could be strengthened by integration of feminist analyses. This
would affect not only studies focusing on women but also the way we approach any
geographical problem. Both radical and socialist feminist analyses are concerned to
explain the origins of sexism and changes in women's social position. This necessitates
examination of the relationship between nature and human nature. Traditionally,
geographers have been concerned with this relationship. We are therefore in a
singularly good position to integrate analysis of the nature-human nature relationship
with developing feminist thought. Geographers have recently recognised the problems
of separating 'economic
'
and
'
social
'
spheres (Duncan, 1979); similarly, feminism
has had to cross a divide between production and reproduction of labour power in
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24 Feminism and geography
understanding women's dual roles. An explanation of spatial organisation incorporating
both production and reproduction would help to unite the concerns of social and
economic geography and would also allow integration of the analysis of both class and
gender. Furthermore, feminist work has shown the significance of ideology which
geographers have also recently recognised (Anderson, 1974; Sayer, 1979) so that there
is scope here also for a useful exchange of ideas.
This paper has been concerned with general theoretical issues; we thus have left on
one side many interesting and important questions. In particular, it would be intriguing
to discover the reasons for the differences in the timing and nature of work on women
*in British and American geography. A further question is why awareness of feminist
concerns developed later in geography than in other British social sciences. (For
example, the British Sociological Association and Political Science Association formed
women's groups in 1974 and 1976 respectively).
Another important issue is the relationship of theory to empirical research and
political practice. Feminist geographers have only sketched out some directions for the
integration of feminist analysis with geographic approaches to human-environment
relations. Further advance must depend on the extension of empirical work which is
informed by feminist theory and practice.
Note
1. Male oppression through patriarchy can be defined as the structure of social relations between men and
women in which men as a group are dominant. (Patriarchy Conference, 1976; Barrett, 1980).
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History of Cartography Project
Under a two year grant of $134,399 from the Research Materials Program of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, work is underway to compile the first two volumes of a projected
five volume general history of cartography from the edited contributions of an international team
of academics in a variety of fields. The project is centred at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, under the direction of David Woodward, Professor of Geography, with a second office
at the University of Exeter, directed by J. B. Harley, Montefiore Reader in Geography, who will
coordinate the work of the European authors and advisors. The work will be published by the
University of Chicago Press.
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