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Women in the city of man:recent contributions to the gender andhuman settlements debateCarole RakodiShelter, Women and Development: First and Third World Perspectives, H Dandekar (ed), AnnArbo r, Michigan: George W ahr P ublishing C o, 1993.Women an d Planning: Creating Gendered Realities, C H Greed, London: Routledge, 1994.Gender, Planning and the Policy Process, J Little, Oxford: Pe rga mo n, 1993.Gender, Urbanisation an d Environment: A Research an d Policy Agenda, D Lee-Smith (com piler)M azing ira I nstitu te, PO Box 14550, Na irobi, 1994.Poverty in the 1990s: The Responses of Urban Women, F Meer (ed) , UNESCO/Internat ionalSocial Science Council, Paris , 1994.'Issue paper: Women, gender and urban development policy ' , C Moser, in OECD, Womenin the city, OE CD :Paris, 1995.OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operat ion and Development) , Women in the City:Housing, Services an d Urban Environment, OECD, Paris, 1995.'Cities and People: towards a gender-aware urban planning process? ' in PublicAdministration and Development 11, p541-559.In this volume, we have seen how identity of men and women influence thehuman settlements are the product of way in which the urban environment iseconomic, social, and political processes, ex pe rien ce d by members of each sex.of which the built environment is only one Elsewhere, I have argued that much urbanmanifestation. It is essential, therefore, to planning activity has been - and continuesunderstand how different forms of work to be - gender-blind; in order to redressare performed by women and men, and this deficiency, I have urged greaterhow gender roles and relations are understanding of women's economic andexpressed through social and po li tica l social roles in urban society, their exclusioninstitutions, from the state to the from economic opportunities and decision-household, if we are to understan d the way making processes, and the discriminatoryin which the experience of urban living is nature of much legislation (Rakodi, 1991).conditioned by gender. These them es crop up over and overAd min istration, policy, and plan ning again in recent additions to the literaturemay have a weak or strong hold over the on gender and urban development , asprocesses of urb an economic, social and researchers attempt to raise awareness andphysical development. In all situ atio ns, influence policy. Many of these contribu-however, assumptions about the role and tio ns are scat tered widely through a

Gender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996


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5 8 Gender and Developmentdiverse selection of edited books andjournals; many others, especially thoseproduced by local researchers, never reachthe mainstream academic publishingoutlets. In concentrating in this reviewessay on recent publications on wom en andhuman settlements, we find that most arethe result of international conferences.Given the increasingly widespread butscattered nature of gender research relatedto towns and cities, these collationsperform a vital function in assemblingknowledge and experience in order to'mainstream' gender issues and translatethese into urban policy and practice(Moser, 1995).

Women in the City is a report of anOECD conference heldin 1994 (OECD,1995). The conference brought togethernational delegations and others, includingacademics and representatives of NGOs,from 27 countries, and a number ofinternational organisations. The reportincorporates summaries of, and excerptsfrom, official contributions and issuepapers, welded into a coherent volumefocusing on the conference themes ofwomen in the city, urban policies and theurban process, creating environments fit tolive in, and developing urban serviceswhich are responsive to diverse needs.Drawing on examples from a widerange of countries in both the north andsouth, the report explores the genderdimensions of urban change, and the waysin which these intersect with b roader issuesof social diversity in cities are explored.'Women's participation is considered, andthe development of a gender perspective inthe political area, the policy process, andplanning practice is urged. In order that theknowledge and expertise of women andmen organised at the community levelaretapped, and their concerns respondedto, the report calls for the development ofboth vertical linkages between differentlevels of policy making and administration,and horizontal linkages between actorsinvolved in urban development.

The living environment within acommunity setting, including housing andservices, is experienced differently by menand women, with the result that badlydesigned housing and poor conditions tendto have an even more adverse impact onwomen, who may spend more time in thehome and its immediate environs. Thereport also notes that the way in which ageand gender identity cross-cut each othercan have profound effects on how urbanlife is experienced: elderly women are oftena particularly disadvantaged group .These concerns are taken up in anotherwell-edited product of an internationalconference, this time held at the Universityof Michigan in 1992 (Dandekar (ed) 1993).In an impressive volume of over 400 pages,50 papers are reproduced, organised u ndernine themes: shelter policy, law, shelter andwomen in crisis, women's participation inthe production of shelter, shelter andincome opportunities, women and shelter-related services and infrastructure, non-traditional living arrangements, design,and the needs of elderly w omen.The contributions, which came from allover the world, are a mine of informationon women and shelter. They, as in theOECD volume, reveal many commonalitiesin women's experience, while recognisingeconomic, cultural, and social differences.While women in any country may bedeprived of adequate housing, this issueshould not be addressed merely in welfareterms because housing, it is stressed, is alsoa potential source of empowerment. As yet,little impetus towards more gender-awareshelter policy is detected, and the slowprocess is attributed to the pervasiveinfluence of patriarchal traditions, and theportrayal of the nuclear family as an ideal.The different ways in which men andwomen experience the city should be takeninto account in planning for services,economic development, and the builtenvironment, not only for reasons of equitybut also in the interests of effective urbandevelopment. Access to social facilities and


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Women in the city of man 5 9other opportunities is often mentioned andthe need for those planning public transportto take women's needs into account. Somepositive examples of attempts to improvewomen's access to economic opportunitiesare given in the OECD report, but it is alsoacknowledged that the increasing inequal-ity and impoverishment which has accom-panied liberalisation policies in manycountries have had particularly adverseeffects on women. (This theme is taken up in a volumeedited by Meer (1994), in which a series ofpapers analyse the responses of women tourban poverty. Holcomb and Rothenburgexplore how women's work within andoutside domestic space changes ashousehold composition and role vary witheconomic development and urbanisation.Chant examines Mexican and Costa Ricanexperiences. Survival strategies areanalysed by Rodriquez in Quito, Pattersonin Guyana and the Caribbean, Meer inSouth Africa, and Kanji in Harare. Finally,Mangahas and Pasalo analyse urban micro-enterprises in the Philippines. The builtenvironment in southern towns and cities isa reflection not just of indigenouseconomic, social, and political relations butalso, and sometimes overpoweringly, ofimported town planning systems underlainby a set of assumptions about genderwhich are those characterising theeconomic and social systems of twentiethcentury Europe (Rakodi, 1991). Systematicin-depth gender analysis of land use andtown planning still appear to be confined tonorthern countries, for example the UK(Little, 1993; Greed, 1994). Greed arguesthat:in order to plan'for women, physical divisionsbetween perceived public and private realmsman ifested in land-use patterns must bedissolved. The nature of land uses must bereconcep tualised, and the likely inter-relationships between them reconsidered, toreflect more realistically the way in w hichwomen 'use' urban space.

Many of the issues raised in the abovevolumes also appear in the slim report ofyet another international conference, thistime organised by the Mazingira Instituteand held in Nairobi in 1994 (Lee-Smith(comp), 1994). Concentrating on theresearch and policy priorities arising out ofthe papers and subsequent discussion,critical themes which emerge include theeffects of economic restructuring on workand migration; movements, organisationand the participation of women in planningand implementation; and the need forgender-sensi t ive approaches to urbanplanning and housing.Many of these contributions try to movebeyond unders tanding women's urbanexperience, by considering positiveexamples of how those planning housingand service provision in urban areas havebeen made more aware of women's needs,and by an analysis of gender, rather thanspecial pleading for women. As yet,however, the undoubted evidence of manywomen's vulnerabi l i ty , and thus the

importance of increasing economic andphysical security, has, for some analysts,made an even-handed treatment of theneeds of disadvantaged men and womenseem premature.While women are excluded fromdecision-making and discriminated against,their empowerment is clearly vital, but wemust not forget that not all women aredisadvantaged nor all men advantaged.

Achieving justice for women is a legitimateand vital aim, but social justice hasadditional dimensions, so that analysis andpolicy must incorporate gender alongsideother dimensions of the urban population,such as age, ethnicity and class.

Carole Rako di is Professor of InternationalUrban Development Planning in theDepartment of City and Regional Planning,University of Wales, PO Box 906, Cardiff CF13YN, UK.


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The Centre for Women and DevelopmentA non-profit making research and actionorga nisatio n es tablished in 1983. Itscompleted research projects include aninvestigation into the impact of migrationon the economic participation of women.PO Box 8205, Kathmandu, Nepal.Tel: 225801, Telex: 2436 DHL NPFax: 220215CEPAMAreas of expertise include providingtra ining workshops and mater ia l onprim ary health care, and financingcommunity participation in health projects.CEPAM also offers assistance in estab-lishing administration systems in primaryhealth care centres, and health projectassessment and evaluation.The Centre Ecuatoriano Para La PromocionY Accion De La Mujer, 8vo Piso, Oficina 3Casilla 09-01-5994, Guayaquil, Ecuador.Tel/Fax: 593-4-403252.The Commission for Filipino MigrantWorkersCampaigns on issues affecting Filipino andother migrant workers.St. Francis of Assisi Community Centre,Pottery Lane, London W ll .Tel: 0171-221-0356, Fax: 0171-792-3060

InterActionA coalition of over 150 US-based non-profitmaking organisations working to promotehuman dignity and development all overthe world. With a focus on empoweringwomen, InterAction works in areas asdiverse as disaster relief and public policy.InterAction, 1717 Massachusetts AvenueNW, Suite 801, Washington DC, 20036,USA. Tel: (202) 667 -822 7, Fax: (202)667-8236Interlink Rural Information Service (IRIS)A non-profit making media and researchorganisation founded in September 1992.ISIS disseminates information on social,environmental and development issues,with a special focus on rural areas andurban slums. The agency has specialreports on community shelter initiativesand the impact of cost-sharing in health.Interlink Rural Information Service (IRIS),P.O Box 12871, Nairobi, Kenya.Tel: (254-2)762454, Fax: 335438International NGO Working Group onRefugee WomenFounded in 1986, it has some 120 mem bers,representing organisations and individuals,concerned about the well-being of womenrefugees, displaced people, and asylumseekers. The organisation has been animportant advocate with governments,UNHCR, and other United Nations bodieson behalf of uprooted women.



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Resources 61IWGRW Secretariat, c/ o Webster SPARC, Byculla Area Resource Centre,University, 13-15, route de Collex, CH 1293 Meghraj Aethi Marg, Municipal Dispensary,Bellevue, Switzerland. Tel: (+44-22) 774 24 Byculla, Bombay 400 008, India. Tel: 00 91 2252, Fax: (+41-22) 774 30 13 896730, E-mail: [email protected] International Coalition (HIC)Women and Shelter NetworkFormed by over 200 NGOs from over 50nations working in housing or relatedsubjects, it acts as an international pressuregroup in defence of the rights of thehomeless. It publishes a newsletter and hasa large database of organisations throug-hout the world.HIC Women and Shelter Secretariat, P.O.Box 14564, Nairobi, or Mazingira Institute,P.O. Box 14550, Nairobi, KenyaInternetYou can get into the gender section on theHabitat II briefings with the followingInternet address:h t t p : / / h ab i t a t . c ed a r .u n iv i e . ac . a t /habitat/gender/This has a number of articles and briefingnotes as well as a list of organisations. Italso contains a paper which Jo Beall andCaren Levy wrote for the first Habitat IIPrepcom, entitled Moving Towards TheGendered City.SPARCSociety for the Promotion of AfreaResource Centres (SPARC) began its workwith women living in makeshift structureson the streets of Bombay in 1984. SPARClobbies with women who live on pave-ments for their rights, to mobilise supportin the community, and on income-earningactivities. By targeting the most vulnerableamong Bombay's 1.5 to 2 million pavementdwellers, SPARC hopes in the long term toimprove the overall position of the city'smost marginalised group. SPARC worksalongside two other organisations, ManilaMilan and The National Slum DwellersFederation (NSDF) in a dozen Indian citiesand further afield in other Asian countries.

The Women and Human SettlementsDevelopment Programme, United NationsCentre for Human Settlements (UNHCS)(Habitat)The Director maintains strong networkinglinks with women's and gender sensitiveNGOs working in the area of humansettlements.Catalina Hinchley Trujillo, WHSDP,UNHCS (Habitat), P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi,KenyaWAFE (Women's Aid Federation ofEngland)A characteristic of the women's movementin the UK has been the campaign toestablish safe-houses for women andchildren escaping domestic violence.WAFE is a national co-ordinating office inEngland, providing information, trainingand resources for the development of highquality refuge provision. Resourcesavailable include information on localauthority provision of refuges, leaflets,posters, and videos.WAFE, PO Box 391, Bristol BS99 7WS, UK.Tel: 01272-420611

UrbanisationIIED, Environment an d Urbanisation: Womenin Environment an d Urbanisation: Strategiesfor Action and the Potential for Change,Volume 3, Number 2, October 1991. Thisspecial issue features a collection of papersexamining women's role in environmentand urbanisation, for instance, thechanging role of women in families andtheir household needs. Also profilesnetworks addressing women and shelterissues.


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62 Gender and DevelopmentArdener S, (ed) Women and Space: GroundRules and Social Maps C r o s s C u l t u r a lPerspectives on Women, Volume 5, BergPublishers Limited, 1993. A collection ofessays exemplifying how particularsocieties 'genderise ' space and timethrough the cul tural ly determinedintersection of behavioral ground rules andmulti-levelled social maps.Katz C and Monk J, (eds.) Full Circles:Geographies of W omen Over the Life CourseInternational Studies of Women And PlaceSeries, Routledge, 1993. Presents cross-cultural perspectives on issues includinghow wom en at different stages of life createthe spaces of their everyday lives, and howmale-organised physical surroundings mayfrustrate women's mobility and freedomM oser C O N Housing Policy and Women:Towards a Gender Aware Approach (Draft)Draft document commissioned by UnitedNations Centre for Human Settlements(HABITAT), Nairobi, Kenya. DPU GenderPlanning Working Paper No 7, UniversityCollege London, 1985. Identifies why it isnecessary, in formulating housing policy,to distinguish groups not only on the basisof income but also gender. How an under-standing of women's triple role is vital tothe success of gender-aware planning.Illustrated by examples of "self-help 'housing programmes.Moser C O N . and Peake L, (eds) Women,Human Settlements and Housing TavistockPublications, 1987. Demonstrates the role ofwomen's work in human settlements andinfrastructural services through casestudies from Asia, Africa, and Central andSouth America. Reflects the experiences ofwomen in site-and-service and upgradingprojects as well as 'self-help' settlements.Sharma U, Women's Work, Class and theUrban Household: A Study of Shimla, NorthIndia Tavistock Publications, 1986. Exploresthe nature of wom en's household w ork in a

modern Indian city. How women's workenables households to persist as statusgroups w ithin a class.Sithole-Fundire S, Zhou A, Larsson A andSchlyter A, (eds.) Gender Research onUrbanization, Planning, Housing andEveryday Life, GRUPHEL, Phase One,Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre andNetwork, 1995. Provides an overview ofwomen's position and status in SouthernAfrica within the context of gender rela-t ions , institutional frameworks, intra-household approaches and wider develop-ment strategies.Thorbek S, Gender and Sljim Culture inUrban Asia, Zed Books, London, 1994. Thisstudy of slum culture and gender relationscompares two slums in Asia - Ratmalana inColombo and Khong Toey in Bangkok -and show s how the impact of urbanisation,economic change and national politics hasdiffered significantly in Sri Lanka andThailand, despite their common culturalbackground of Therevada Buddhism. Thebook is written with clarity and warmth,focusing on the human relationships whichare central not only to women's identity,but to their survival strategies.UNHCS, Women in Human SettlementsDevelopment and Management, UnitedNations Centre for Human Settlements(Habitat), 1989. Training manual availablein English, French and Spanish forinstructors and planners responsible forpromoting women's participation in devel-opment and management of human settle-ments. Includes a summary of experiencesfrom different countries.Women's Feature Service, The Power toChange: Women in the Third World RedifineTheir Environment, published by Kali ForWomen, in India and S. Asia, 1992. ZedBooks Ltd. London and New Jersey, 1993.Compiled from articles submitted to theWomen's Feature Service by women


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Resources 6 3journalists in Africa, Asia and LatinAmerica, the stories illustrate the necessityto locate women at the heart of the devel-opment debate.MigrancyBuijs G, (ed) Migrant Women: CrossingBoundaries and Changing Identities CrossCultural Perspectives on Women, Volume7, Berg Publishers Limited, 1993. Examinesthe varied and complex responses ofwomen to migrancy. How the crossing ofgeographical, moral or metaphysicalboundaries can bring about changes ingender relations.Chant S and Mcllwaine C, Women of a LesserCost: Female Labour, Foreign Exchange andPhilippine Development Ateneo de ManilaUniversity Press and Pluto Press, 1995.Provides new insights into the linksbetween women's employment, migrationand household organisation.David, R with Khayri Niang O, Myers M,Ruthven O & Yabre P, Changing Places:Women, Resource Management and Migrationin the Sahel: Case Studies from Senegal,Burkina Faso, Mali and Sudan (ESRC)Economic and Social Research Council.SOS Sahel UK, 1995.Migration is not a new phenom enon for theSahel but the last 40 years have seen out-migration from rural areas reach newproportions. The case studies investigatethe relationship between male out-migration and women's management ofnatural resources.Dawson G Development Planning for Womenin the Indonesian Transmigration ProgramMonash Development Studies Centre ,Monash University, 1992. Suggests thatprevailing gender hierarchies can beabsorbed and reinforced in transmigrationprogrammes. Contends that the commonlyheld strategy of making women 'visible' isnot enough to ensure that transmigrantwomen will benefit from development.

Argues strongly for a genuinely gender-sensitive approach to p lanning.Ferris G E, Beyond Borders: Refugees,Migrants and Human Rights in the Post-ColdWar Era WCC Publications, Geneva 1993.Analyses current movements of people intheir global and regional contexts andsuggests how the international systemmight respond better to the needs ofmigrants and refugees. Concludes with aplan of action for churches and NGOs.Samha M, 'The impact of migrancy flowson population changes in Jordan' , inInternational Migrancy, pp . 215-228, 28 (2),1990. An article about the effect of out-migration and immigration on the pop-ulation of Jordan.Shami S, (ed.) Population Displacement andResettlement: Development and Conflict in theMiddle East, Centre for Migration Studies,New York, 1994. Considers world trends inlabour migration and the resultant complexconfigurations of migrants in one state.Argues that population displacement is nolonger an internal matter for any one state,rather it involves consequences for manygovernments as well as for internationalbodies. Contains an annotated biblio-graphy.Refugee issuesAgger I, Bille M, (trans.) The Blue R oom:Trauma Testimony Among Refugee Women: APsycho-Social Exploration, Hans ReitzelsForlag, Copenhagen, 1992 and Zed BooksLtd, Lond on and N ew Jersey , 1994. Anarrative about bodily, psychological,cultural, social and political boundaries.The testimonies of refugee women from theMiddle East and Latin America. Seeks todraw a map and give a name to somesignificant areas of the refugee woman'sworld.Callaway H, 'Women refugees, specificrequirements and untapped resources' in


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6 4 Gender and DevelopmentJournal of Third World Affairs, p p . 3 2 0 - 3 2 5 ,1987. Strongly suggests that researchersand refugee aid policies have overlookedwomen. Argues for more research aboutrefugee women to enable aid agencies totake account of women's roles and needs.Pumamaki R. L, 'Relationships betweenpolitical violence and psychologicalresponses among Palestinian women', inJournal of Peace Research, pp . 75-85 , 27 (1 ) ,1990. Compares three group s of Palestinianwomen, from the West Bank and GazaStr ip, Israel, and refugee camps inLebanon, to compare the impact of politicalviolence.Stoltenberg K, Working with WomeninEmergency Relief and RehabilitationProgrammes, Field Studies Paper, No. 2,League of The Red Cross and CresentSocieties, May 1991. Written just after theGulf Crisis and the Kurdish displacementof 1991, this paper highligh ts comm onproblems facing women and girls indisaster situations, with particular emph-asis on the Middle East.UNHCR, Extract from Draft Document onGender Analysis Framew ork, UNHCR,undated. Traces gender analysis issuesthrough the five stages which refugees tendto face: departure, flight, entry, asylum,and resettlement.UNHCR, Guidelines for the Protection ofRefugee Women, UNHCR, 1991. Theguidelines generally follow the UNHCRpolicy on refugee women, which is, tointergrate the resources and needs ofrefugee women into all aspects of itsprogramme to ensure equitable protectionand assistance activities, whilst recognisingthe special needs of refugee women.UNHCR, Policy on Refugee Women,UNHCR, unda ted. Highlights the issues ofparticipation and representation of refugeewomen in planning and implementing

projects and the importance of ensuringthat all refugees have the opportunity tocontribute to activities planned for them.UNHCR, Project Planning and ReviewChecklist: Refugee Women and Children, 1989.Examples of project design and implement-ation issues concerning refugee womenand children used in preparing andrevising UNHCR project submissions.UNHCR, Refugees: Refugee Women,pp.10-13 , No. 100, Volume 2, 1995.Overview of UNHCR's change in policytowards refugee women and its attempt torecognise and meet their needs.

The following videos are available from theUNHCR Public Information Section, CasePostale, CH 1211 GENEVE 2 Depot -SUISSE. Tel: (022) 39 8111 or Telex: 28 144.UNHCR, Refugee Women, 34mins, UNHCR,undated. Focuses on the difficulties andsuccesses of refugee women in South-EastAsia as a means to explore broader issues.UNHCR, Assisting Refugee Women, 9mins45secs, UNHCR, undated. With specificreference to Cambodian refugees, high-lights how lack of consultation withrefugees can lead to ineffectual assistance.Suggestions for successful emergency workinclude using UNHCR people-orientatedplanning framework and identifying withwomen areas in which they can participate.UNHCR, Refugee Wom en: Partners in theSearch for Solutions: An Introduction toProtection and Assistance Issues, 8mins,UNHCR, undated. Stories of the specialprotection needs and strengths of refugeewomen.


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Editorial

'A!ong with the process of urban-isation, poverty is also increas-ingly being urbanised' (Wegelinand Borgman 1995, 131). In 1950, therewere only 10 cities with populations of 5million or more; in 1993, there were 33 - sixof which had 15 million or more(Population Crisis Committee, 1995). Thearticles in this edition examine genderissues and human settlement, and empha-sise the intercortnectedness of all aspects ofwomen's and men's lives, and the linksbetween people's physical surroundingsand w hat they do to survive.For the majority of women and menliving in the cities of the developing worldthe reality of urban life is survival throughinformal work and a shelter in anunplanned area, which is likely to have fewessential services like health centres andschools, and may well have no clean watersupply, sanitation, rubbish collection orpower. Rising population in the citiesthrough births and through migration, andgrowing economic and political instability,mean that many states can no longer copewith construction or maintenance. There isincreasingly inadequate public provision ofhousing and basic services, and a growingnumber of de facto female-headed house-holds , especially in the poorest socialsectors. In some Northern cities in recentyears , growing numbers of homelesspeople live on the streets or in sub-standard accommodation in conditions ofextreme deprivation.

In June 1996, the Second United N ationsConference on Human Settlements -Habitat II - takes place in Istanbul. Sincethe Habi tat I Confere nce w as held inVancouver in 1976, the notion of cities asfocal points for industrial activity, whichwould provide employment for the urbanworkforce, has collapsed. The overall aimof Habitat II is ' to generate worldwideaction to reverse the deterioration in livingenvironments'. Graham Alder points outthat 'informal settlements are not isolated"pockets of poverty" which can be ignoredin the planning and development of thecity, but are settlements where the majorityof the poor ... reside' (Alder 1995, 86, in thecontext of Nairobi).

Increasing impoverishment in the face ofeconomic crisis and efforts to makeadjustments in the economies of developingcountries has not only deepened the povertyof the 'structural poor', who have a long-term, near-absolute lack of resources, but hasalso widened poverty to take in the 'newpoor' (terms used in Minujin 1995). Thiscategory, of women and men who may owna shelter but have used up all disposableresources and are facing a process ofincreasing impoverishment, grew inArgentina, for example, from 4.2 per cent ofpopulation in 1980, to 18.4 per cent in 1990(Minujin 1995). The deepening and wideningof poverty is increasing social stratification;evidence is growing to show that women aredisproportionately represented among thosewhose long-term poverty is deepening, and



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Editorialthose for whom poverty is a relatively recentstate (UNDP 1995).Several of the articles which followargue that understanding living conditionsand employment in the city in gender-neutral terms, has resulted in buildings,transport systems, and service provisionwhich hinder, rather than help, survivaland growth. Urban dwellers are sufferingthe social effects of living in a physicalenvironment which impedes, rather thanenables, their survival and prosperity.Diversification: a copingstrategyUrbanisation forces both women and meninto greater dependence on the casheconomy. There is likely to be little or noland for subsistence food production, andkeeping animals may be prohibited by cityby-laws. For many first- or second-generation city dwellers, distance fromrelatives means that the unpaid labour offamily members is no longer available. Theneed for cash may mean that women whohave previously not participated in income-generation are involved in this for the firsttime.

As Carole Rakodi says, diversification isa way of life for women, and is an essentialmeans of coping with insecurity (Rakodi1991, 42). Women in the city have histor-ically resisted attempts by policy-makers tocontrol their activities and movementswhen these restrictions have hamperedtheir efforts to make a living for themselvesand their families. In areas, such as Easternand Southern Africa, where men havemigrated to work leaving their families inthe rural areas, women defied governmentattempts to control their movements andtravelled to the cities to provide servicesand provisions (Lovett, 1990).

Cities in both developing and so-called'developed' countries today play host to agrowing population which makes a livingprimarily based on small- to medium-scaleproduction of goods and services. Much of

this productivity takes place outside theformal structures of legally-set standards ofpay and working conditions, contracts andtaxation, in the 'informal sector'. 'In LatinAmerica, more than 30 per cent of all non-agricultural workers were in the informalsector at the end of the 1980s. In 1990, theinformal sector in sub-Saharan Africaemployed more than 60 per cent of theurban workforce - more than twice theshare of themodern sector' (UNDP 1995,14).The reality of women's workToday, women 's work w ithin cities remainscharacterised by insecurity, low returns,and the fact that the many different facetsof that work, both unpaid and paid, are notrecognised by urban planners. The realityof women's work calls into question manyof the neat categories used by planners andpolicy-makers; for example, female workersin export-processing zones (EPZs) or thefactories of transnational corporationsexperience conditions similar to those in the'informal sector' - low earnings, insecurityand poor working conditions.

Typically, women working informallyundertake activities which fit into culturalnotions of 'women's work', and which areable to take place alongside domestic andchild care responsibilities (Heyzer 1981).'Informal' work for women is likely to needlower investments, and yield lower returns,than that chosen by men. Much of it takesplace within the home; poor women aretypically working for the survival ofthemselves and their families, (ibid) andhave few resources to channel into businessventures requiring premises and equip-ment . A future edition of Gender andDevelopment will deal more fully with theissues of employment, economics, andexclusion (forthcoming, October 1996).

In this issue, Jo Beall examines women'sparticipation in the labour force, and theimpediments placed on such participationby urban policy-makers, who do not focuson the work performed by poor women in


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4 Gender and Developmentthe 'informal sector'. Women working inlocked factories in South-East Asia, andhawkers in the streets of East African cities,would not recognise the regulated workingenvironment envisaged by city planners,who often conceive of breadwinning as amale activity which takes place in abusiness area or industr ia l area , for aregular five or six-day week and an eight-hour day.Planning: technical orpolitical?Male-dominated planning - a technicalskill, requiring expensive education andtraining - has perpetuated a misleadinglyone-sided conception of a city throughserving the interests of the small elite whodemand and use facilities such as tarmacroads, and high-rise office buildings. Thismay explain why urban planners them-selves have proved resistant to acquiring asocial perspective. 'Conflicts, like choices,lie at the heart of public policy-making'(Devas and Rakodi 1993,35).Caroline Moser has asked whether thereason that urban policy remains'essentially gender-blind' is that 'policy isessentially "policing" ... and that in theirrecommendations the purpose of policy-makers is to control rather than empowerlocal women' (Moser 1995, 231). In herarticle on Palestinian refugees in Amman,Jordan, Seteney Shami relates how com-munity resistance can influence and changethe course of development at micro-level.In her article, Jo Beall discusses genderissues and the city in the light of women's'participation as entitlement' and 'partici-pation as empowerment'.Making the ruralrurbanlinksTargeting the rural regions of developingcountries over the last 30 years has been alogical response on the part of differentactors in development, who have tried to

redress the imbalance created by state andmult i la tera l funding of high-prest ige ,sophisticated urban programmes at theexpense of poorly-served rural areas. Manydevelopment agencies have also seenfunding rural development as a way ofpreventing urban poverty, in the hope thatif rural people's livelihoods are improved,the numbers of migrants travelling to citieswill be reduced.However, urban and rural developmentare not two separate entities which can beunderstood and supported independentlyfrom each other. Nor can governments,multilaterals, and NGOs assume that urbanpoverty is less acute or affects fewer peoplethan rural poverty. As Susanne Thorbekhas observed, 'the city will no longer be[seen as] a centre for civilisation andculture if a great part of its inhabitants canonly just eke out a l iving under poorphysical and economic condit ions '(Thorbek 1994,11).Analysing social relationships,including gender, highlights not only thecommonalities between urban and ruralexperiences of poverty, but also the factthat urban and rural life are linked in com-plex ways. 'Women's lives are particularlycontextual, embedded in a variety of socialand cultural relationships and character-ised by the inter-relationship of women'sactivities with many physical settings'(Churchman et al, 1995,5). Two examplesare a rural household, who may send afamily member as a migrant worker, andthe passage of goods and services,travelling from city to village, or vice versa,to find a m arket.

Understanding migrationMigration of one family member, or of aparent or married couple with children, isoften a strategy which is of benefit to awider family network at home in a ruralarea. The decision of who to send for workobviously depends on who will find workmost easily. For example, in countries with


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Editorial

Contrasts, Dominican Republic: advertisementsfor multinationals and poor urban housing.EPZs which prefer to employ youngwomen who do not have child care resp-onsibilities, young women may be calledon by their families to migrate and send themoney home.

In China, urban areas are growing veryquickly - in 1985, China's urban populationaccounted for nearly one-fifth of the urbanpopulation of the developing world andranked second only to India in terms of theabsolute increase of the urban population1970-85 (Devas and Rakodi 1993, 3). Thegrowing numbers of young women whomigrate to find work in Chinese cities arefinding a form of emancipation in beingable to leave the constraints of 'tradition'behind them. Delia Davin, who addressesthe issue of gender and 'circular' migrationin China in her article, points out that moreintangible benefits may be had frommigrat ion, in terms of new ideas andinformation which may have an emancip-

ating effect on both female migrants and,longer-term, on the sending community.Land and shelter: alivelihood strategyThe need for safe, secure housing goes farbeyond the physical need for shelter. Itpromotes a sense of stability which enableswomen and men to focus their activities. Alonging for rootedness in a place which weconsider home is a basic human character-istic. In some areas, people who live in thecity for decades may still consider theirhome to be in their place of birth. In otherregions, where urbanisation has been afeature of life for centur ies or evenmilennia, as in the Americas - the mosturbanised region of the developing world -people may see themselves as having asolidly 'urban' identity, rather thanthinking of urban life as a temporary phase.

In her article on refugee settlements inAfghanistan, Sue Emmott considers theintense stress which results from peoplebeing forced from their land, and suggestssome implications this l ink betweendisp lacement and t rauma has for thedesign of relief programmes. She alsoquestions the distinction made by develop-ment practitioners and theorists between'temporary' and 'permanent' settlement.What implications does such a distinctionhave for the people involved, and forprojects designed to aid them? A relatedquestion to be examined in connection withthe susta inabil i ty of deve lopmentinitiatives in urban areas is women's andmen's commitment to improving theirdwellings and surroundings. Is the citysomewhere they consider to be 'home'?

The security which land tenure andproperty ownership gives in capitalisteconomies can be used in other ways, too -to finance loans, for example. For manywomen worldwide, the issue of propertyownership is still contested, despite the factthat, during the 1980s, the focus of muchgender-sensitive research was how women


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6 Gender and Developmentwere marginalised from self-help projectsse t up to address infras tructure andhousing needs (Moser 1995).Women's right to own property, includ-ing land and buildings, opens the door totheir making a livelihood. For example,their access to credit may depend on this.In this light, shelter can be understood aspart of the prerequisites women need todetermine their own lives, not simply as awelfare concern. Thinking of shelter as partof a livelihood strategy also provides a wayinto thinking about owning as opposed torenting; people's demand for different sortsof housing and tenure depends on theircircumstances and household life cycle(Varley 1995).Cities, freedom, and fearHow does living in a large humansettlement change, or consolidate, relationsbe tween women and men? Negativeconnotations associated with urban crisishighlight slum living, alienation, societalb reakdown and lack of communi tysupport, and increased desperation result-ing in violence and fear outside the home,and even within it. Growing poverty andthe resulting crisis leads, for m any w omen,to increasing domestic violence and splitsin marital and family relationships. ValliYanni discusses these issues in the contextof CEPAM's work on women's health andempowerment in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

However, as Delia Davin points out,urban life has the potential to offer emanci-pation from the constra ints of ru ra l' tradition' , and the city can be a site ofwealth generation which offers women theopportunity to develop strength and auton-omy. Certainly urbanisation presents achallenge to social structures; the resultingcrisis obliges both women and men to re-evaluate old stereotypes. Yet urbanisationmay also entrench stereotypes - cities arebuilt and run by male-dominated elites,cities are concerned with wage work -traditionally associated with men.

Ironically, new stereotypes may bepromoted by unconscious - or conscious -biases in gender and development researchand projects. It has been pointed out thatmuch research on women in the city tendsto focus on women-headed households, oron women's activities outside the home.This is to deny the complexity of the livesof the majority of women, who form sexualre la t ionships with men and care forchildren (Varley 1995). Another newstereotype is thinking of 'wom en' as synon-ymous with poverty. Women are not ahomogenous group, and thinking of themas such risks ignoring those who need theattention of development p lanners themost. Feleke Tadele discusses this point,and debates the need to focus on age aswell as gender, in the context of Kebele 29,a well-known urban renewal project inAddis Ababa, Ethiopia, funded by Oxfamuntil 1994.Environmental concernsInterconnectedness is emphasised again byfeminist approaches to environment (Sayne1991, 47). 'The acknowledgement of th econtradiction at the heart of the phrase"susta inable development" is thebeginning of a gender analysis' (ibid.).What is needed is to re-define 'growth' indevelopment as the growth of human well-being in all its complexity, rather than todefine it as economic accumulation.

Nearly three years after the EarthSummit at Rio debated these and otherissues , environmental degradat ion -including pollution of water and air andthe exhaustion of fuel and water supplies -remains a growing hazard to both urbanand rural dwellers. In inner-city areas,many of the poorest people live close toindustrial areas which suffer high levels ofpollution. Cities which have a centre ofWestern-style infrastucture need costlymaintenance if high-rise buildings, sewers,and road systems are not to becomedangerous and ultimately unusable.


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EditorialHabitat II's overall principle, drawingon Principle 1 of the Rio Declaration onEnvironment and Development, is that"human beings are at the centre of concernsfor sustainable development. They areentitled to a healthy and productive life inharmony with nature . ' Conservat iondepends on the understanding of the userof the reasons for it, and on the need forresources not clashing with this. Control ofcommunity resources in urban areas - forexample, water pumps - tends to be bymen, who may marginalise women's needfor resources for domestic use andproduction. Domestic energy needs should

be considered in the l ight of thecomplicated lives of most informal sectorworkers - energy tends to be seen as eitherfor domestic use and for formal workplaceuse (Makan 1995).Planners need to start from askingwomen what they think they need. Do theyprioritise energy? Other problems - such ashealth or education - may be higher ontheir list (Ginwala 1991, 60, quo ted in

Makan 1995). Sophisticated technologymay entrench or change gender roles forthe worse - for example, electricityaccounts may require a bank reference ormay simply request a man's name (Makan1995). On the other hand, faith in 'approp-riate technology' may be misplaced if this isdesigned in a way which does not fit intothe realities of life - a solar cooker, forexample, will be of little use if night fallsbefore the family meal can be cooked.Finding solutionsIn line with the trend to search for solutionsbeyond the public sector in many areas ofpolicy-making, non-governmental organis-ations are increasingly required to addressthe problems of cities in crisis. However,this is an area which needs massivefunding and the consensus of large pop-ulations; thus, states and multilaterals needto be involved a longside communityorganisations, and national and inter-

national NGOs. It is virtually impossiblefor the private sector to provide services indeveloping countries after the 'rolling-back' of the state - the costs of the skillsand resources required are simply too high.It is also unacceptable for essential servicesto be in the hands of unaccountable p rivateoperators. Market forces alone cannotdeliver essential services to urban dwellers;it is increasingly clear that many statescannot do so either. Thus, urban develop-ment demands solutions from differentagents working together.'If solutions to poverty are to be found,then ways must be found to scale upresponses and develop an institutionalframework which will enable key actorshaving a stake in the future of informalsettlements and of the city as a whole toparticipate fully in the development ofs tra tegies which are fully rooted ineconomic and political realities' (Alder1995,91). Comm itment to working togetherin this way is reflected in Habita t II'sPartnership Committee, a body set up to

convey the views of civil society, includingNGOs and academics, to the Conference.A comparative lack of at tent ion tourban issues at Beijing - in comparison tothe traditional focus by deve lopmentagencies on ru ral development - is evidentin the Beijing Platform for Action, where onegains no real sense of the concerns ofHabitatll except in the most sketchy terms.This is in marked contrast to frequent

references in the Beijing document to theproceedings and concerns of other UNConferences, including the 1993 Rio 'EarthSummit' and the 1994 UN Conference onPopulation and Development in Cairo.However , a lack of focus on urbanissues at the Beijing Conference hasperhaps stimulated the activities of genderspecialists and the women's movement atHabitat II. There has been an immense

amount of lobbying, research, and advo-cacy on gender and urban poverty comingfrom women's organisations and networks,in all forms and at many levels. Networks


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8 Gender and Developmentsuch as SPARC (the Society for Promotionof Area Resource Centres), based inBombay, India, try to help those womenliving in the city without shelter, and haveworked closely with other organisations inadvocacy leading up to Habitat II. In aninterview in these pages, Catalina HincheyTrujillo of Habitat gives her perspective onthe conference build-up.

Involving all actors in the community indevelopm ent needs a comm itment tolistening to those whose voices may notalways be heard, or valued. From aperspective of justice and fairness, it iscritical that women are involved indecision-making at both community level,and, as JoBeall puts it, 'in City H all'.

However, women's participation ingovernment does not necessarily promotethe 'gender interests' (Molyneux 1985) ofwomen politicians themselves or otherwomen; simply being female is noguarantee of having a concern for thepromotion of gender equity. For thisreason, it is important to make men, too,aware of the centrality of gender inunderstanding the whole picture of howhuman set t lements operate , and whatchanges to planning should be made tobenefit those citizens who are ignored inconventional urban planning and manage-ment. This could go some way to mendingthe split which exists between technocraticapproaches to planning and humandevelopment concerns. Two changes whichwould promote learning and planningwould be encouraging exchange ofinformation on innovative projects, anddetermining the city's welfare indicatorswith women's priorities in mind.ReferencesAlder G (1995) Tackling poverty in Nairobi'sin fo rmal se t t l eme n ts : dev e lop ing anins t i tu t ional s t rateg y ' , Enviro nme nt andUrbanisation 7:1.Churc hma n A, Dav idov ic i -Mar ton R andFester T (1995) 'Wom en an d the u rba n

environment: why women's needs should beat the core of urban plannin g' in Countdown toIstanbul, 1:4.Devas N and Rakodi C (eds) (1993) ManagingFast Growing Cities: New Approaches to UrbanPlanning and Management in the DevelopingWorld, Longman:UKHeyzer C (1981) 'Women, subsistence and theinformal sector: towards a framework ofana lys i s ' , IDS Discuss ion Paper 163 ,University of Sussex, UK.Lovet t M (1990) 'Gender relat ions , c lassformation and the colonial state in Africa', inWomen and the State in Africa, Parpart J andStaudt K (eds) Lynne Reiner Publishers.Makan A (1995) 'Power for women and men:towards a gendered approach to domesticenergy policy and planning in South Africa',Third World Planning Review 17:2.Minujin A (1995) 'Squeezed: the middle-classin Latin America', Environment an d Urbanisa-tion 7:1.Molyneux M (1985) 'Mobilisation withoutemancipation? Women's interests, the stateand revolution in Nicaragua', Feminist Studies11:2.Moser C (1995) 'Women, gender and urbandeve lopm ent policy: challenges for futureresearch', Third World Planning Review, 17:2.Population Crisis Committee (1995) 'Cities:Life in the World's 140 Largest MetropolitanAreas'.Rakodi C (1991) 'Women's work or house-hold strategies?', Environment and Urbanisa-tion 3:2.Sayne P L (1991) 'Food for thought: makingwomen visible', Environment an d Urbanisation3:2.Thorbek S (1994) Gender and Slum Culture inUrban Asia, Zed Books: London.United Nat ions Development Programme(1995) Human Development Report, 1995,UND P:New York.Varley A (1995) 'Ne ither v ictims nor h eroines:women, land and housing in Mexico cities',Third World Planning Review, 17:2.Wegelin E and Borgman K (1995) 'Op tions formunicipal in tervent ions in urban povertyalleviation', Environment and Urbanisation 7:1.


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Participation in the city:where do women fi t in?Jo BeallWomen's priorities have often been ignored in the design of human settlements, thelocation of housing, and the provision of urban services. New forms of urbanpartnership are needed, to develop participatory processes that include women andmen at all stages of urban development.Participation, like equity, is somethingwe all support, and yet it is a word towhich very different meanings canbe given. As Nicci Nelson and SusanWright put it, the term participation 'can beattached to very different sets of relations,often seemingly by its "warmness" to bedistracting close attention from the natureof those relations' (Nelson N and Wright S,1995). Thus, in writing about participationin the city, I want to be clear about how Iuse the term 'participation', and about thegender relations involved.

Part ic ipat ion is most commonlyassociated with political participation oractivity. In the second half of this article Iaddress this view of part ic ipat ion byreviewing some of the critical gender issuesin urban governance, understood both asgovernment responsibi l i ty and civicengagement.1 I focus on women's involve-ment in the organisational life of the city -in public office and in organisations of civilsociety - and the importance of this inincorporating a gender perspective intourban development planning and practice.However , in order to unders tandparticipation in political or organisationalterms, it is also necessary to explore therelated issue of how women and men

participate in the social and economic lifeof the city, and how they benefit andcontr ibute , as workers , carers , users ,clients, and pleasure seekers.A useful distinction in developing mythinking has been that between participationas entitlement and participation as empower-ment (Borner S et al, 1995). I use 'participa-tion as entitlement' here to refer to howwomen and men command resources ,contribute to, and take responsibility forthe well-being of their households, com-munities, and the city. 'Participation asempowerment' is used here to refer to theprocesses by which organised groups in thecity (and individuals within them) identifyand articulate their interests, negotiatechange with others, and transform urbanorganisational life and their role within it.

This article starts by giving an overviewof the 'gendered city ' ,2 historicallydesigned by men and for men - butinhabited by both women and men, whohave diverse interests and needs atdifferent stages of their l ives, and indifferent family and community contexts.Through thinking about 'participation asentitlement', I examine how women andmen benefit from and contribute to urbanlife, through examples of opportunities forGender and Development Vol 4, No. 1, February 1996


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10 Gender and Developmentmaking a l iving and for using urbanresources and services.This picture of the 'gendered city 'provides a backdrop for a discussion of'participation as empowerment' . Here Iconsider some of the problems faced bywomen in public office and within grass-roots organisations. The article concludes byarguing that a gender perspective will notinform urban policy and planning processesautomatically. There is a need to transformCity Hall from within, while continuallyholding it to account from outside.

Women and men use and experiencecities in different ways, and not always inways anticipated by planners. ElizabethWilson (Wilson E, 1991) has pointed outthat historically, gender stereotyping hasprofoundly affected urban planning andurban institutions. Cities are spatial andorganisat ional expressions of socialrelations, which are based as much onpower and conflict as on cooperation andconsensus. This has meant that the needs ofurban women have often been ignored.Gender and poverty in thecityBy the next century the majority of th eworld's poor people will be living in urbanareas, most of them in cities of the ThirdWorld. While the development of humansettlements has led to significant improve-ments in living conditions for many peopleacross the globe, cities can also be placeswhere the quality of life declines andopportunities are denied, particularly forthe urban poor. Urban people in povertyare usually those without secure employ-ment, savings or saleable assets. They arevulnerable to changes in demand in th elabour market, and in prices of basic goodsand services, and they cannot affordadequate housing.

Women predominate among urbanpeople in poverty for three reasons: first,because the jobs they can obtain are poorlypaid, part-time or insecure (even in contexts

where there are high levels of male unem-ployment or where women workers arepreferred); second, because of inequities inresource distribution and decision-makingpower within the household, so thatwomen do not always control their ownincome; and third, because of the fact thatwomen generally do not command equalresources or assets compared to men intheir society. The increase in women-headed households in cities everywhere,and the growing phenomenon of women-maintained families, make it even morenecessary to adopt a gender perspective inresponses to urban poverty.Currently, in cities worldwide, there isevidence of 'new poverty' resulting fromeconomic reform. Economic restructuringhas made urban people insecure andvulnerable. For example, cuts in publicsector jobs, reduction in subsidies on staplefoods or services such as transport, and theintroduct ion of user charges and costsharing for basic services, have increasedurban poverty.While the urban poor are bearing thebrun t of structural adjustment, it is womenamong them who are doing most to com-pensate for declining real incomes (ElsonD, 1989). There is evidence from Africa andLatin America (Chant S, 1995; Kanji N,1995) that women are reducing their ownconsumption in the face of pressures ondomestic budgets imposed by user chargesor cost sharing. In Europe, demand s are

being made on wom en's time, as a result ofthe withdrawal of state responsibility forwelfare and the shift towards communitycare. In countries of the South, women arethe ones who take responsibility for themanagement of their com munities, organis-ing facilities and services in the face ofinadequate provision.Women respond to urban problems indifferent ways from men. They haveproved inventive and resilient in m anagingcommunities, maintaining social cohesion,and building homes and neighbourhoodsunder conditions of dislocation or disharm-


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Participation in the city 11ony. As urban management fails to deliverurban infrastructure and services, and aseconomic restructuring erodes the realincomes of poor people in cities, there isincreased competition for affordableshelter, and for employment or income-earning opportuni t ies , as well as forservices as basic as drainage, sanitation, ormeeting places. There is ample evidence ofwomen organis ing to improve theirsurroundings and their securi ty . In areview of the l i terature Moser citesexamples of a range of low-income urbanwomen's activities: health issues, childcare, water, waste recycling, self-helphousing, and transport (Moser C, 1993).Making a living in the cityMillions of people in the cities of Africa,Asia, and Latin America cannot find workin the formal sector and have to create workthemselves or find it within the informaleconomy. Everywhere, women are enteringthe labour market when household wagesfall. It has been pointed out that increasedresponsibility as breadwinners does notalways lead to greater status or decision-making power for women (Moser C, 1993).From the perspective of participation asentitlement, women in the city do more,and command less.

Women are everywhere over-represented in the non-conventional labourforce. There may be restricted demand forwomen's labour, and they might haveinappropriate or inadequate skills for theformal wage employment available; wagesin the formal sector may be lower thanreturns from the informal economy; orwomen may find it easier to balanceincome-earning activities with their otherresponsibilit ies in the more flexibleenvironment of the informal economy. Atthe same time, in some places demand forwomen's labour has increased, resulting ina feminisation of the labour force,particularly where production is labourintensive.

Recognising the interaction between theorganisat ion of work and other socialrelationships and responsibilities is crucialto the development of sustainable strat-egies towards p romoting urban livelihoods.Women and men are never just workers,but have other social responsi-bilities andrelations in the household and communitywhich impinge on the manner and extent towhich they engage in income-earningactivities and participate in the productivelife of the city.Urban planning as a genderissueThe fact that the buildings and structure ofcities last for generations means that thearchi tecture , urban design, land-useplanning and infrastructure are left tofuture generations by past eras. Con-ventional urban planning has been char-acterised by cities being divided into zonesintended for specific activities, with houses ,markets, and factories in separate locations.Today, cities designed along these lines nolonger conform to the reality of people'slives, both women and men. Stereotypicalnotions of nuclear families - with malebreadwinners journeying across town towork, and women as housewives caring fortheir children and elderly relatives inresidential neighbou rhoods - have neverapplied in some situations, and in others nolonger apply. The separation of home,work, and leisure is being challenged incities in both the North and the South, aswomen and men work to transform theurban environment.

A look at any number of informalsettlements in the cities of the Third Worldtells us that many different activities go onwithin them; and that with or withoutplanners, people create and organise theirsurroundings in a variety of ways. Womensquatters in Africa build their shacks not ina grid pattern, but around central spaces, tofacilitate communication and communalchild care. A shopkeeper in India can call


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12 Gender and Developmentbehind a curtain to his wife cooking andsewing in the back room. Their childrencan run between the two of them, and visittheir uncle in his motor-cycle repairbusiness which he conducts from theadjoining yard and the street in front of theshop. In the North, the rise in home-working and telecommuting means there isless separation between work, community,and family lives than in the past.Getting around the cityFunctionally fragmented cities often make itdifficult for people, and particularly women,to manage the tasks of daily life. Womenoften need to travel outside of rush hours,and to different destinations from those ofmen, for example, to shops, schools, andclinics. Yet cost cutting inevitably involves areduction in off-peak services, and privateoperators are reluctant to take on routes andtimes that are not so busy.

The problems women face are due tothe fact that transport systems haveinvariably been designed around the man'sjourney to work; and because the currentfocus of transport planning is on mobility,rather than accessibility. As mothers andcarers, women have to escort others; asworking women engaged in informalsector activities, they often have to carryheavy loads. Yet public service vehicles areoften designed without these requirementsin mind. This results in women having tostruggle with inconvenient public trans-port , or to walk (Levy C, 1992).

It is not only the gender roles of womenwhich require consideration. As PatsyHealey argues (Healey, P, 1995), we alsoneed to integrate the concept of socialdiversity into public policy, to make thebuilt environment less like an assaul tcourse or a danger zone, and to make itmore user-friendly, safe, and secure foreverybody: women and men, the healthyand robust as well as the frail and disabled,and for people at different stages of theirlife cycle.

Access to resources andservicesThere are countless ways in which income,status, and patronage affect people's abilityto use services and facilities. At oneextreme, access to the city itself may berestricted. Urban authorities have variouslyexpel led migrants without res identpermits, bulldozed illegal settlements,arrested illegal workers, harassed streett raders , and closed down unlicensedenterprises. Gender relations can also serveto restrict women's access and can intersectwith other social relations to excludewomen from participation.

The urban poor in general are deniedland tenure , adequate housing, andnecessary infrastructure and services. Theyare often confined to sites that are unsuitedto human settlement, such as hillsides andswampy areas, or that are close to sourcesof pollution, such as industrial areas orgarbage dumps. When housing pro-grammes, upgrading schemes or infra-structure developments present oppor-tunities for the improvement of humansettlements, women are often excluded,because their incomes are too low; or theyhave no appropriate collateral or patron-age; or they are illiterate and cannot readlegal documents and fill in the requiredforms; or because they do not have the timeand skills to engage in self-build schemes.Women who are included in schemes asmembers of households are rarely con-sulted, despite the fact that women, asprime users of housing and h u ma nsettlements, often have insights which canprevent failure and w astage.Violence in the cityThe issue of safety is one of growingurgency as cities in many countries arebecoming more violent, restricting accessand mobility in the city, particularly forwomen. Violence and public safety aregender issues. Young boys face different


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Participation in the city 13sorts of pressure from young girls, oftenwreaking havoc and creating fearthemselves, while at the same time beingvulnerable to physical assault and attack, asa consequence of male gender roles andnorms. Women, too, experience gender-specific forms of urban violence and sexualassault. Violence or the fear of it can provejust as effective as more direct forms ofseclusion such as purdah, in restrictingwomen's mobility and keeping them interror behind closed doors.

Fear and violence prevent participation,either as entitlement or as empowerment.As stated in the Canadian National Reportto the OECD Conference on Women in theCity (OECD 1995):.. . violence and the fear of violence preventswomen from full and equal participation in thesocial life of their community and threaten ourunderstanding of what should be the demo craticfunctioning of our society.

Women's participation inurban governanceRecent concern with governance in urbanareas stems from a more general attentionbeing paid to the issue of 'good govern-ance' in development. There are two mainapproaches. One is 'essentially preoccupiedwith questions of financial accountabilityand administrative efficiency', and theother is more interested in politicalconcerns related to democracy, humanr ights , and participation (Robinson M,1995).

Cities have particular governanceprob lems of their own. They are notcompletely independent, because varioustiers of government intervene in urbanareas, and they are subject to national andinternational economic, environmental, andsocial pressures. Urban governance used tobe equated solely with urban management.More recently it has come to be understoodboth as government responsibility and civicengagement involving a full range of

par t ic ipan ts , and this makes it morepossible to integrate a gender perspective.

Women's representation inpublic officeThere are a number of reasons why w omenshould participate in public office. Firstly,there are the demands of equality anddemocracy. Secondly, women need todemonstrate their capabilities if legislationfor equality is to resul t in real socialchange. Thirdly, women have particularexperiences of, and relationships to, theurban environment, and they have provedthemselves to be effective agents of changeat the city or local level on a range of issues.However, there continue to be a number ofobstacles to women's par t ic ipat ion inpublic life, such as lack of confidence,know-how, and connect ions , and ofcourage to stand for office without support.In many developing countries, there areadditional handicaps restricting women'sparticipation, such as cultural constraintson women taking part in public life.

Even in countries which have a goodrecord on women 's political representation,there is no room for complacency. Forexample, in Australia five years ago, nearlyhalf the mayors of the capital citieshappened to be women. Now there is onlyone female mayor (OECD, 1995). Evenwhen the proportion of women remainsfairly constant, there is a high turnover ofelected women. One conclusion to bedrawn here is that women themselvesbecome exhausted and dis i l lus ionedthrough trying to balance multiple respons-ibilities. Another is that if women electedrepresentatives are to have a sustainablepolitical career at any level, their multipleresponsibilities have to be recognised andaccommodated by government. In Sweden,there has been considerable progress inincreasing the participation of women inpolicy arenas as well as the labour market,based on the expansion of child care


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14 Gender and Developmentfacilities and parental insurance. Thesemade it possible for both women and mento combine productive and political lifewith family responsibilities. Thus there arelegislative and economic prerequisites forwomen to take p art in public life.Women are better represented at th elocal than the national level, for reasonssuch as proximity and convenience,although they stil l remain a minori ty(Gwagwa N , 1991). Existing male-dominated interest groups are likely to bereluctant to give up the power and controlof resources which are associated with localoffice and patron-client patronage net-works. Thus, current t rends towardspolitical decentralisation of power may notnecessarily increase the number of womenelected to local office.

However, the fact that women holdpublic office does not guarantee that theinterests of all women will be represented.Political responsibility to a wo me n ' sconstituency at metropolitan or municipallevel does not come automatical ly towomen representatives, and there is nopoint in heaping blame on individualwomen in public office. It is more import-ant to ensure that there are institutionals tructures which enable the specificinterests of women to be represented bylocal councils, and that councillors havetransparent , accountable , and openchannels of consultation and communica-tion with their constituencies. This isessential for participation as empower-ment, and yet in many countries and manycities the political will is lacking.Community organisationand advocacyCommunity act iv ism is an impor tan tavenue towards participation in city-levelplanning and policy-making processes, andis necessary to keep politicians accountable.Issues reach the policy agenda whenpowerful or well-organised groups insociety identify and press for solutions to

their problems. Adopting a wo me n ' sperspective in policy and planning wouldnot have been possible without thesustained organised force of women overthe last two decades. This has been forgedthrough women organising separately, orin broad coalitions with men, or throughinclusive networks, in support of socialjustice and equitable policy change.

The importance of women's grassrootsorganisations is increasingly appreciatedby governments and external agencies andNGOs. This is particularly the case whenwomen organise services themselves, in theabsence of adequate provision from othersources (Moser C, 1987). In Peru, womenorganised self-help responses to theeconomic crisis. To provide for their ownand their families' survival they startedcommunity kitchens and 'glass of milk'committees, some of which went on tobecome larger health and leadership-training initiatives (Barig M, 1991).There is a danger, however, if womenconfine themselves to organising self-helpand survival strategies. This can result notonly in other sectors and institutions beingallowed to abdicate responsibility forprovision and redistribution at the urbanlevel, but in women being left to managecommuni t ies on their own, withoutresources or political and professionalsuppor t . To ensure 'par t ic ipat ion asempowerment', therefore, it is importantthat women in organisat ions of civilsociety, such as NGOs and community-based organisations, are not only involvedin community management, self-help, andservice provision, but also have theopportunity for personal self-development,campaigning, and advocacy.The Society for Promotion of AreaResource Centres (SPARC) in Bombayrecognises this problem and whileaddressing the basic needs of women, alsoworks with them to increase their politicaleffectiveness. Two examples of SPARC'Swork are support for an organisation calledMobile Creches which provides child care


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16 Gender and DevelopmentNotes1 The terms 'government responsibility' and'civ ic engagement ' are those used in TheHabitat Agenda or Global Plan of Action, whichhas grown out of the preparatory process forthe Habitat II Conference in Istanbul in June1996.2 This term was first used in a paper entitled'Moving Towards the Gendered City', whichI wrote with Caren Levy and which wascommiss ioned by the Women and HumanSettlements Development Programme of theU n i t ed N a t i o n s C en t r e for H u m a nSettlements [UNCHS (Habitat)] for the FirstPrepcom for Habitat II, Gen eva, A pril, 1994.ReferencesBarrig M (1991) 'Women and development inPeru: old models, new actors', Environmentan d Urbanization 3:2.Beall J D (1995) 'Social sec urity a nd socialnetworks among the urban poor in Pakistan',Habitat International 19: 4.Borner S, Brunetti A and Weder B (1993)'Political credibility and economic growth',Basel, (mimeo): quoted in N u n n en k am p P(1995) 'What donors mean by good govern-ance: heroic ends, limited means and trad-i t i o n a l d i l em m as of d ev e l o p m en t co o p -eration', IDS Bulletin, 26: 2.C h an t S (1995) 'Gender aspects of u rb aneconomic growth and development ' , paperprepared for UNU/WIDER Conference onHuman Settlements in the Changing GlobalPolitical and Economic Processes, Helsinki,25-27 A ugu st.Elson D (1989) 'The impact of s t ru c t u ra ladjustment on women: concepts and issues'in Onimode B (ed) The IMF, the World Bankan d African Debt Vol 2: The Social an d PoliticalImpact, London: Zed Press.Environment an d Urbanization 7:1, April 1995;and 7:2, October 1995 (special issues on urb anpoverty).Escobar Latapi A and Gonzalez de la RochaM (1995) 'Crisis , restructuring and urbanpoverty in Mexico', Environment and Urban-ization,?: 1.

Gwagwa N (1991) 'Women in local govern-m en t : t o w ard s a fu ture South Africa ' ,Environment and Urbanization 3:1.Healey P (1995) 'Integrating the concept ofsocial diversity into public policy', in OECDWomen in the City, Housing, Services and theUrban Environment, Paris: OECD.Kanji N (1995) 'Gender poverty and economicad j u s t m en t in H a r a r e , Z i m b a b w e ' , inEnvironment and Urbanisation, 7:1.Levy C (1992) 'Transport', in Ostergaard L(ed) Gender and Development: A Practical Guide,London: Routledge.Molyneux M (1985) 'Mobilisation withoutemancipation? Womem's interests, the stateand revolution in Nicaragua', Feminist Studies11:2.Moser C (1987) 'Mobilisation is w o m e n ' sw o rk : s t ru g g l e s for i n f r a s t ru c t u re inGuayaquil, Ecuador', in Moser C and Peake L(eds) Women, Human Settlements and Housing,London: Tavistock.Moser C et al (1993) Urban Poverty in theContext of Structural Adjustment: RecentEvidence and Policy Responses, Washington,World B ank TWU Discussion P aper 4.Nelson N and Wright S (1995) Power andP a r t i c i p a t o ry D ev e l o p m en t , Lo n d o n : ITPublications.OECD (1995) Women in the City, Housing,Services and the Urban Environment, Paris :OECD.Robinson M (1995) 'Introduction: towardsdemocratic governance', ID S Bulletin 26: 2.Sen A (1981) Poverty and Famines, Oxford:Clarendon Press.SPARC (1986) Annual Report, Bombay.Wi lson E (1991) The Sphinx in the City,London: V irago.


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Gender, domesticand urban upgrading:a case study from AmmanSeteney ShamiThis article examines an urban upgrading project in two squatter areas in Amman.Through the project, the state asserted its control of every part of women's lives,addressing most aspects of private and public life in the targeted comm unities. Wo menresponded by using the pow erful language and symbols of dom esticity and femininityin successfully dealing with p ublic agencies and personnel to turn the project to theiradvantage.I n the l i te ra ture on M id dle Ea ste rn refugee camp, and the Jabal is surroundedsocieties, the distinction between the by low- income ne ighbourhoods . Thepublic and private spheres has long people them selves do not dis t inguishbetween these different areas or draw theirboundaries according to legal definitions of

urban space, such as ' squat te r a rea ' ,'refugee camp', or 'low-income housing'.More important for them are the networksof family and mutual help that define theirident i ty , g ive meaning to their socialrelationships, and sustain them through

"n the l i te ra ture on Middle Easternsocieties, the distinction between the.public and private spheres has longbeen based on an uncritical assumption ofthe 'dual and separate worlds of men andwomen' (Nelson 1974, 551). In other words,gender identity has been seen as the crucialfactor in defining the public and privatedomains, rather than types of relationshipsor activities carried out, or the meaningsassociated with these.Decisions or activities coming from the'public' (state) level often threaten todominate and even to take over life in theprivate sphere through, for example, thepossible demolit ion of an urban site ,inclusion in urban upgrading projects, theconducting of surveys and research, orNGO activity sponsored from outside thearea.The first area in this study (the Wadi)lies along the slopes and the bottom of asteep gully, the other (the Jabal) on one ofthe highest hilltops of the city. They areamong the most congested and poor areasof central Amman.1 The families who livethere are Palestinian refugees from the 1948and 1967 exoduses. The Wadi borders a

difficult and insecure economic circum-stances. Women's relations w ith each other,in their homes, neighbourhoods and thecity, challenge prevalent ideas concerningboundaries between the public and theprivate domains of life.Women in the domesticenvironmentAccording to a 1980 survey, a ' typical 'household in the Wadi or the Jabal lives ina one or two-roomed concrete house with acourtyard, roofed with corrugated metal,connected to water and electricity supplies(though often illegally and sometimesshared with a neighbour) , but with no



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18 Gender and Developmentsewerage. The average size of householdwas 6.58 persons, and density per roomwas 3.54 persons. The average income was90 JD /m on th earned by one or possiblytwo m embers of the household.2 Work wasmostly in small-scale workshops, theconstruc t ion industry , and low-levelgovernment employment , and mostfamilies had at least one member workingin the Arab Gulf (UDD 1981). In 1985,about 10 per cent of women workedoutside the home or in relatively regularincome-generating activities within thehome;3 69.7 per cent of households wereclassified as single families, 10.2 per cent asextended families, and 8.8 per cent asmultiple-family households.

Yet this description of the 'average'squatter household does little to help usunderstand the social circumstances andarrangements in which people live. Whenthe survey data is listed in terms of thedifferent types of relations within ahousehold instead of being grouped intotypes, 75 different configurations can befound within this small number ofhouseholds. The following case shows thecomplicated situations that poverty createsin a dwelling, even when almost all itsoccupants are female and related by kinship.

The two households of Um Khalil and Aishashared a dwelling consisting of three room sbuilt in concrete and an open courtyardenclosed by a zinco wall. The link between thetwo households was Hasan, Um Khalil'shusband and Um Hasan's son. Um Khalil andher six daughters lived in one room, her sonKhalil and his wife in another and they shared akitchen and outdoor toilet.Um K halil's mother-in-law (Um Hasan) lived in another room withher three-times-divorced daughter Aisha, andAisha's young daughter from her last marriage.They had a separate kitchen bu t shared the toiletwith the other household. Hasan himself liveddown the street with his second wife. Anotherlink between the two households was thatKhalil's wife was Aisha's eldest daughter fromher first marriage.

In spite of these kinship links, therewere two separate households within thedwelling. Although Hasan contributedsomething towards the expenses of both(while keeping away physically most of thetime), Khalil was the main supporter of thefirst household (from his wages as amechanic) and Aisha of the second one(from her alimony), with some incomeobtained through Um Hasan's (rapidlydecreasing) activities as a midwife andhealer . Although Khalil was the wageearner, Um Khalil was clearly the head oftheir joint household and took all financialand other decisions. Aisha's household waspoorer than Um Khalil's, and a main causeof conflict between the two was oversharing the water tap, which was the onlysource of water in the house and the bill forwhich Um Khalil paid.

The ambiguity of these relationshipswas constantly being played out in the foursquare metres of the courtyard. The doorsof the two sets of rooms did not face oneanother, and there was an invisible linedrawn across the courtyard that only theyounger children would cross withimpunity. The adults kept to their side ofthe courtyard except when entering orleaving through the common main door.Sometimes Khalil's wife would be 'visitingher mother'. This only entailed crossing thecourtyard and yet during her visit, Khalil'swife would lock up her room as she didwhen she went to the m arket or to visit hersisters in another area of Amman. UmHasan once gave a lunch party and invitedher grand-daughter (Khalil's wife) but nother daughter-in-law, Um Khalil . Theparallel activities of cooking, washingclothes, putting herbs out to d ry in the sun,were done separately and in that part of thecourtyard particular to each household.Thus, the courtyard and the dwellingwere 'shared' and yet 'not shared' by thetwo households, who were related to oneanother simultaneously as kin and non-kin,and through both descent and marriage.On rare occasions the two households


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Gender, domestic space and urban upgrading 19

The use of courtyard space reflects the complexsocial relations between households sharing thesame courtyard. There is constant visiting betweenthe women and children of the households.would sit together, for example, during avisit by Hasan's second wife, Um Khalil'sco-wife and Um Hasan's daughter-in-law(previously her sister-in-law because Hasanmarried his uncle's widow as.his secondwife). During this visit, the tensions of thecomplicated relationships were clearlyexpressed in the seating arrangements.

Relationships betweenwomen across householdsSimilar complex spatial divisions alsoexisted in the more common situation ofmultiple-family-households where a couplelived with one or more of their marriedsons and their respective families. Further-more, in some cases, a household, as aneconomic and social unit , was spreadacross several dwellings. Women's rela-tions also stretched across many house-holds.


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20 Gender and DevelopmentO ne of the most sensit ive arenasthrough which to explore the way womenorganise their relationships inside andoutside the household is that of work. Theintensely social nature of housework

becomes clear when looking at howwomen spend their days and fulfil theirobligations. The scope and weight ofwomen's responsibilities and decision-making is encapsulated in the fact thatmost men in the Wadi (and all those whoare considered to be 'good' men) turn overtheir entire earnings, other than a smallamount of 'cigarette money', to their wivesor to their mothers. This money is themeasure of a woman's authority in thehousehold but also means that it is up toher to make ends meet and to provide forthe food, the necessit ies and theemergencies.

Running a large household on a smallamount of money is time-consuming anddifficult. To manage, women in differenthouseholds have to rely upon each otherfor help with housework, shopping, andchild-care; for aid, in financial emergencies;and for information on where the cheapestvegetables or the cheapest doctors are to befound. Households that reciprocate daily insuch matters may be said to form 'mutuala id uni ts ' . Al though such uni ts aregenerally based on kinship, yet they areformed selectively, and from all thepossible combinations, one or two unitswill emerge. The prevalent pattern was thatuni ts tended to be formed betweenhusband's sister/bro ther's wife.Regular reciprocity could also takeplace between households which were notrelated by kinship, and in this case physical .closeness was the major factor. Sometimesthese relationships formed because of theabsence of kinsfolk nearby, or because ofconflict in families, but often they existedalongside kin-based units. They includedgroups of women that formed around asingle task. A good example is wom en's co-opera t ion in embroidering Palestiniandresses. The cloth, thread and panels of the

dress circulated among women accordingto their expertise. A woman particularlygood at the difficult embroidery of theneckline may not be as skilled as another ata certain stitch, or in cutting out the dress.A dress par t icu lar ly adm ired wou ldcirculate in different households for thedesign to be copied or adapted.4These relationships were formed andmaintained by women, irrespective of thequality of the relations between the maleheads of their households. Such mutual-aidgroups had some continuity, but tended tosubside and re-form according to therelationships of the women involved.

Reciprocity between households oper-ated on two levels: women to women; andchildren to children. In addition there wereadu lt/ch ild relations as in child-care and inthe services that children performed forwomen, such as shopping, running errandsand carrying messages. Thus there was agreat deal of visiting and a constant flow offood and children between these inter-connected households, located at differentparts of the residential area or in otherneighbourhoods . Thus , women wereinvolved in relationships stretching acrossthe squatter area, into the adjacent neigh-bourhoods, and over to far-flung districtsof the city.These relationships show that peopledid not identify with the area as a whole ordifferentiate between 'squatter' and 'non-squatter' in the formation of their socialrelations, which stretched across andbeyond the area designated as the 'squatterarea' by the authorities.The urban upgradingprojectSince 1980, the families of the Jabal areahave been part of an urban upgradingproject , implemented by the UrbanDevelopment D epartment (UDD), an ad hocagency created for this purpose by themunicipality. The aim of the project was toextend basic services to the squatter areas


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Gender, domestic space and urban upgrading 21

The upg rading project has led to sharp contrasts inthe physical structure of the squatter area.and to enable their inhabitants to acquirelegal tenure to their land and houses. Thisinvolved buying the land from the legalowners, extending water, electricity andsewerage connections, paving the paths andalleys, and making available long-term loansto enable families to pay for the land and thecost of the services and thus to acquire legaltitle. Loans were made available to buildnew houses. The incentives for building anew house, or upgrading an existing one,were many. A house would be a more viableeconomic proposition w ith the acquisition oftenure, but also the municipality would notconnect new services to a house that did notmeet legal building codes. This meant thatthe house had to be built of 'permanentmaterials' i.e. concrete or stone, and had toobserve regulations concerning the degreeof set-back and percentage of built-up androofed areas.Resistance to the UDD project in th eJabal was strong. Having been settled in1948, by 1980 the area was well-established,

its inhabitants generally felt secure fromeviction, and most houses were connectedto water and electricity. At first glance itwould appear that the resistance wasmostly carried out by men, especiallyelders. A number of the men were jailed forinciting demonstrations, until the mayorinterceded to free them, and negotiationstook place to sort out differences betweenthe UDD and the community.Eventually the project went ahead, butwith a substantial reduction of its cost to theinhabitants. While public confrontations tookplace with the male elders of the community,and while the UDD tried to set u p analternative leadership by encouraging youngmen to form neighbourhood associations, itwas the women (in this, and other squatterareas) who interacted on a daily basis withthe UDD staff, who argued with them, andtried to negotiate better terms.There was a heavy UDD staff presencein the area throughout the major phase ofproject implementation. The Jabal wasbeing invaded constantly by outsiders:

project engineers, social workers, inter-viewers for successive surveys, visitorsfrom the government and from the WorldBank. But the role of the project in restruct-uring the lives of the women and theirfamilies went beyond uncomfortableinteractions with strangers.Planning to restructuresocial relationsThe project had a definition of not onlyhow a family 'should' live, but also what afamily 'is'. Married sons were eligible forseparate plots, which encouraged m ultiple-family households to split up. At the sametime, the project, while safeguarding theownersh ip of plots , also l imited thisownership , and ha l ted the process ofexpansion of plots that some householdshad begun. The project also defined what a'community ' cons is t

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