Breaking the gender code : women and urban public space in the twentieth century United States / Georgina Hickey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hickey, Georgina, 1968- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban women--Political activity--United States--History--20th century.

Urban women.

Urban women--United States--Social conditions--History--20th century.

Women political activists--United States--History--20th century.

Women political activists.

Public spaces--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Public spaces.

Urban women--Services for--United States--History--20th century.

Urban women--Protection--United States--History--20th century.

Cities and towns--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Cities and towns.

Feminist geography--United States--History--20th century.

Feminist geography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 259 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Women and urban public space in the twentieth century United States

Women and urban public space in the 20th century US

Place of Publication:

Austin, TX : University of Texas Press, 2023.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A history of the activism that made public spaces in American cities more accessible to women. From the closing years of the nineteenth century, women received subtle-and not so subtle-messages that they shouldn't be in public. Or, if they were, that they were not safe. Breaking the Gender Code tells the story of both this danger narrative and the resistance to it. Historian Georgina Hickey investigates challenges to the code of urban gender segregation in the twentieth century, focusing on organized advocacy to make the public spaces of American cities accessible to women. She traces waves of activism from the Progressive Era, with its calls for public restrooms, safe and accessible transportation, and public accommodations, through and beyond second-wave feminism, and its focus on the creation of alternative, women-only spaces and extensive anti-violence efforts. In doing so, Hickey explores how gender segregation intertwined with other systems of social control, as well as how class, race, and sexuality shaped activists' agendas and women's experiences of urban space. Drawing connections between the vulnerability of women in public spaces, real and presumed, and contemporary debates surrounding rape culture, bathroom bills, and domestic violence, Hickey unveils both the strikingly successful and the incomplete initiatives of activists who worked to open up public space to women.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Right and Reason. Understandings of Women's Presence in the Modern City

Building Women into the City. Infrastructure and Services in the Early Twentieth Century

The City and the Girl. Midcentury Consumption, Civil Rights, and (In)Visibility

When Girls Became Women. Confronting Exclusion and Harassment in the Long 1960s

The Public Is Political. Demanding Safe Streets and Neighborhoods

Taking Up Space and Making Place. Late-Century Institution Building

Privacy in Public. The (Almost) Policy Revolution

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-250) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Jan 2024)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781477328248

1477328246

9781477328231

1477328238

OCLC:

1376430840