Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-Made World

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Leslie Kern's Feminist City is an accessible introduction to feminist geography that helps readers break it down (though only in some ways; more on that later). It is both an introduction to feminist geography and to modern feminism, with its multiple meanings and numerous contradictions. She doesn't offer many solutions, but she does point out changes and, perhaps, how some of the changes can make further changes. The fear I felt when a man stared at me in the Tube and then took the seat next to me as soon as it opened up.

I appreciate that the author was willing to point out that solutions weren’t always perfect and didn’t take a dogmatic approach to her position. Despite some progress, women, disabled people, people of colour, gender and sexual minorities, immigrants as well as Indigenous communities are still being marginalised and excluded from decision- and policymaking processes. And 'City of Protest' celebrates both the political power of cities, and the potential for protest, as well as the ways in which protest norms and behaviors can unintentionally include working-class women, mothers, and many others in how they're structured.Feminist visions of the city have been here all along…there are examples of both practices and ideals that are being lived right now, all along. Potrei potenzialmente leggere di geografia e urbanistica femminista per mesi e mesi (e probabilmente lo farò). However, gender mainstreaming is becoming a broader concept as there are many examples attempting to acknowledge the variety of needs of particular groups ( Clare Foran, 2013). These housing developments focused on the collective needs of lower-income communities with shared spaces for cooking, housework and childcare. Combined with the author’s engaging content on popular culture through references to movies, television series and books, this makes Feminist City enjoyable and accessible to a more general audience.

Kern delves into the interlocking inequalities and systems of oppression that take concrete shape in cities, using an intersectional feminist approach to explore the gendered aspects of urban space.

This amplification of bodily experiences such as exhaustion and pain emerges as a result of everyday labour (Parker, 2017). This book is ultimately a guide to loving our urban neighbors well—providing better access to public restrooms, making public transit more accessible and hospitable for pregnant women, keeping women safe from assault and harassment on the street, resisting gentrification, and ensuring marginalized groups feel consistently welcomed in the spaces they navigate through.

It is time to dismantle what we take for granted about cities and to ask how we can build more just, sustainable, and woman-friendly cities together. So, I would not at all read this book to consider the possibilities for making public spaces more accessible and friendly for women. In discussing women's safety on the streets, she acknowledges the vital role Take Back the Night campaigns have played in protesting sexual and domestic violence against women, as well as critiques of where they've failed working class and trans women.This is a book about what it would be like if we can imagine a feminist city and how the current geographies of cities impact women. She deploys an intersectional lens to explore such themes as mobility, protest, adolescence, and friendship, weaving together an impressive array of sources from academic writings and popular culture (Doreen Massey appears alongside Two Dope Queens). Feministyczna geografka Leslie Kern przygląda się nie tylko miastom, ale także przestrzeniom prywatnym i zastanawia się, jak te przestrzenie się przenikają, jednocześnie zwracając uwagę na intersekcjonalność zagadnień, które należy brać pod uwagę, dzieląc się własnymi doświadczeniami, zwracając uwagę na to, czego od przestrzeni miejskiej mogą wymagać matki, czego osoby z niepełnosprawnościami, jak wygląda zabieranie przestrzeni osobom queer i mniejszościom etnicznym.