Constructive Feminism: Women's Spaces and Women's Rights in the American City

Daphne Spain

Published by Cornell University Press 2016

Constructive Feminism

Women's Spaces and Women's Rights in the American City

Daphne Spain

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501704130

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Constructive Feminism, Daphne Spain examines the deliberate and unintended spatial consequences of feminism's second wave, a social movement dedicated to reconfiguring power relations between women and men.

Author / Editor information

Daphne Spain is James M. Page Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia. She is the author of How Women Saved the City and Gendered Spaces, coauthor of Balancing Act: Motherhood, Marriage and Employment among American Women, and coeditor of Back to the City: Issues in Neighborhood Renovation.

Reviews

Dennis R. Judd, University of Illinois at Chicago, coeditor of The City, Revisited: Urban Theory from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York:

Occasionally a book comes along that fundamentally changes the way we understand the urban landscape. Constructive Feminism is one of those books. Daphne Spain shows the many ways that the Second Wave of feminism has challenged the gendered spaces that long denied women a rightful claim to the public sphere, and in doing so, she makes us see cities from an entirely new perspective.

Mary Corbin Sies, University of Maryland, coeditor of Planning the Twentieth-Century American City:

Constructive Feminism is a compelling read. Daphne Spain tells the stories of Second Wave feminist leaders who established new urban spaces that helped move women toward realizing their full citizenship rights during the 1970s. Her emphasis is on documenting efforts to get gender-exclusive collectives up and running and describing the services and activities women performed and obtained through them, and analyzing their reception and impact. Spain draws on extensive and rich archival sources, and the stories she tells capture the excitement of those heady days.

This book is a valuable addition to introductory planning classes....reading about the challenges and obstructionist actions faced by women as they built safe spaces was a very visceral experience.

A valuable addition to the literature on women and the environment that has dwindled with the waning of second-wave feminism. As I read the book, I realized how much more work remains to be done, albeit as part of the third wave.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Introduction: Spatial Consequences of the Second Wave Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Feminist Practice: Social Movements and Urban Space Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
2. Women’s Centers: Nurturing Autonomy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
3. Feminist Bookstores: Building Identity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
4. Feminist Health Clinics: Promoting Reproductive Rights Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
5. Domestic Violence Shelters: Protecting Bodily Integrity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
6. After the Second Wave: Necessary Spaces Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
Appendix A: Data Sources for Figure 3 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Appendix B: Women’s Centers, 1973 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Appendix C: Feminist Bookstores, ca. 1980 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	196
Appendix D: Feminist Health Clinics, 1975 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 280
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 11
- Images: 11
- Other: 11 halftones, 4 maps, 1 table
Keywords: feminism; second wave; segregation; radical activists; women; wives; mothers; labor force

eBook

Published: May 4, 2016
ISBN: 9781501704130