The Urban Geography of Women’s Daily Lives

Melissa R. Gilbert

Department of Geography and Urban Studies Temple University

July 27, 2006 bITS Geographies Informal Science Lecture Series Sponsored by the National Science Foundation

Urban Geography

Urban geographers ask the following questions:

 Why are different types of people, activities and infrastructure located where they are?  Who benefits from the allocation of resources and power and who does not?  What do we want our cities to look like? How do we make them work better for all people? How do we go about making the changes happen?

Urban Geography

How do we answer these questions?

 Actions of politicians, business owners, planners etc. http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/images/cartoon-38-430.gif

Urban Geography

How do we answer these questions?

 Ordinary people create the everyday geographies of the city.  Data Sources – – Maps, census data, archival data People —interviews, surveys , observation

Urban Geography and Women My research goals:

 What can we learn about the geography of cities from the perspective of ordinary people — particularly women and girls?

 How do

gender roles

help to explain the way cities look and are experienced by women and men?

Sex

= biological differences between

males

and

females Gender

=the socially created differences between

men

and

women Gender Roles

with = the socially learned behaviors and expectations associated

masculinity

and

femininity

.

Occupational Segregation by Gender

What is occupational segregation by gender?

Political button sold at http://www.northernsun.com/n/s/0462.html

Occupational Segregation by Gender

What is occupational segregation by gender?

U.S.: Female-dominated Occupations

Occupations Total, 16 years and over

Secretaries Cashiers Registered nurses Elementary school teachers Nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants Bookkeepers, accounting, and auditing clerks Waiters and waitresses Receptionists Hairdressers and cosmetologists General office clerks

Percent women

46.6% 98.4

76.9

93.1

82.5

90.0

92.9

76.4

96.9

90.4

83.7

NOTE: n.a. = not available. Median not available where base is less than 50,000 male workers.

1. Wage and salary for full-time workers.

2. Not elsewhere classified.

3. Includes foods, drugs, health, and other commodities.

4. 2001 Averages Compiled by Melissa Gilbert

Source:

U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Occupational Segregation by Gender

What is occupational segregation by gender?

U.S.: Male-dominated Occupations

Occupations

Construction laborers Electricians Law Enforcement Workers Engineers Computers and Mathematical Occupations Lawyers Physicians and Surgeons

Percent women

3.3

2.4

18.8

10.6

30.0

28.5

26.7

1. Wage and salary for full-time workers. 2.2000 Averages.

Compiled by Melissa Gilbert

Source: Compiled by

Institute of Women’s Policy Research from U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau.

Occupational Segregation by Gender

Why does occupational segregation by gender matter?

 Occupational segregation by gender matters because the

jobs that many women take earn less money

. http://images.publicradio.org/content/2004/09/03/women_pay_2.jpg

Occupational Segregation by Gender

Why does occupational segregation by gender matter?

2003 Median Annual Earnings by Race and Sex Race/gender

White men Black men White women Black women Hispanic men Hispanic women

All men All women Wage gap Earnings

$41,211 $32,241 $31,169 $26,965 $26,083 $22,363

$40,668 $30,724 Wage ratio

100.0% 78.2

75.6

65.4

63.3

54.3

75.5%

NOTE: Includes full-time, year-

Source:

round workers ages 15 and above. “White” and “Black” exclude those who reported more than one race category. “Hispanic” includes all those who so identified, regardless of race.

U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2004 Annual Social and Economic Supplement.

Occupational Segregation by Gender

What causes it?

Political button that can be purchased at http://www.progressiveportal.org/images/merchandise/btn352-so-that-explains.gif

45% of the wage gap can be explained by

discrimination

,

stereotyping

, and

gender role socialization

.

Occupational Segregation by Gender

How does geography contribute to occupational segregation by gender?

Large scale studies based on surveys show that:  Women have shorter commutes to work than men and that women in so called “women’s jobs” have the shortest commutes of all.  Social networks, developed in places, connect women to so called “women’s jobs” and men to so called “men’s jobs.” .

Research Goals and Methods

Research Objective

 Why do women choose their jobs?

  Why do women use social networks? What do woman think would make their lives easier?

Whom did I interview?

 95 working women with children   Worcester, MA 2 hr. interviews, taped, transcribed, coded, analyzed

How did I find them?

 Community leaders  Word of mouth

Results

The Spatial Extent of Women’s Daily Lives



The women in this study had short travel times to work in line with the larger studies.

But asking women questions about their daily life leads to a more complex picture.

Results

The Spatial Extent of Women’s Daily Lives

“It seems like the mothers are always stuck picking up the kid and dropping him off, no matter what, you know what I'm saying, if it's because of the hours…To drop him off, I leave the house at 8:00, he's there by 8:30 so 1/2 hour drive. And then from there I go to work which is another 20 minutes or so. It takes me about an hour more or less to commute.” “Well, it's [childcare one] just five minutes [from work], but in the wrong direction. So I go there and pick her up, and I have to go pick up the other kid which is maybe ten minutes from there [childcare one], and then from there [childcare two] going home is another five minutes. But it would take at least a half hour because you can't just go there and throw the kid in the car as you drive by slowly. You have to park the car, go up the stairs, dress the kid, bring her down the stairs, do the seatbelt, and do the same thing for the next kid.”

Results

The Spatial Extent of Women’s Daily Lives



Women’s travel times to work increase substantially when you take into account the time they need to drop children off at and pick them up from childcare. In fact, women’s childcare trips doubled the time it took from them to get to work on average.

“I wouldn't go too far [to work], I'm having trouble as it

is. I need to be there if something happens with the kids--15 minutes max.--like where I work now, it takes about 15 minutes to get to any school I might need to.”



Women with children are expert urban geographers children. —they would not travel further to work for higher pay because of their

Results

The Interrelatedness of Housing, Employment, and Child Care Decisions

“I had to run my kids off. Well my two older ones were going to school so I took them over to a neighbor and then the baby, I had to stroll him up the street to a friend's house about five blocks away and then grab a bus and be there to work by 8:00 a.m.” “I looked for the job particularly because it was within the bus route...The crossing guard at his [son] school, took him after school...She'd walk him to the bus stop and put him on my city bus. I would like walk up to the front of the bus and say, "o.k. I'm here" and I'd wave to her and he'd get on (Gilbert 1997b).”

Results

The Interrelatedness of Housing, Employment, and Child Care Decisions



Working women are spatial strategists. They make their housing-childcare employment decisions together in order to overcome the time and space constraints due to multiple roles. This is why their daily activity patterns are spatially limited relative to men.



Lack of access to cars and/or reliance on public transportation limits the spatial extent of women's daily activity patterns and the nature of the employment, housing, and childcare solutions.

Results

Social Networks

“I have a lot of contacts in the community. Part of it has been my jobs [in social service agencies] and besides that my mother was in social services when I was a kid so a lot of it is roots and I always use my resources...I have a lot of friends at work. We stay in touch and talk about personal things. It is sort of a women's network. I also belong to a black women's network group. ..Our fathers and mothers knew each other. We all lived in the same neighborhood “… “In the group I was in we all talked about leaving and how it would be to terminate some place that you grew up and that was really horrendous you know thinking about it. I know the streets, I know where the jobs are, I could pick up the phone and call you. My mom is here. You go to Atlanta or Virginia, you don't have those contacts, you don't have any coping. What do you do to replace the coping? So it's easier to stay here. “

Results

Social Networks

"even for me it was pretty iffy and risky, but it worked out o.k.." (leaving her children with an unknown neighbor)” "That's just the way I am--it is a conscious strategy. When you don't have your family nearby, you have to turn to people who aren't related to you. I have no family in Worcester. I meet people through my children and through friends at work."



The spatial extent of women’s lives helps to determine where and with whom women develop networks.

Results

Social Networks

“My daughter sleeps over my sister’s at night time

during the week…my sister gets her off [to school] in the morning …they [her sister’s children] all go to the same school…I iron her clothes and everything so all she got to do is give her a bath at night…and get her washed in the morning…My son, I bring him over [to the same sister] early in the morning when I go [to work]…She watches him until I get home from work during my break around 9:00/9:30 a.m. I take him from her and then by 12:00 p.m., she has him back.”



Personal networks created by women locally and intensively may be the key to a woman finding a job-housing-childcare combination that will allow her to be self supporting. At the same time, the local network may constrain the set of opportunities considered possible.

Results

Social Networks

“I would have never moved to Massachusetts without having family here. But in a way I'm glad that I'm here and the rest of my family is there [Syracuse, NY]. My downfall is ...I care about them a lot and they used to use that to get money and things because they knew I would give it... and then they wouldn't pay me back. It took from my family.” “I wouldn't move too far from my parents. My mother doesn't drive and my father is sick...I do the grocery shopping, call the doctors, and stay up in the hospital.” These women’s comments illustrate that although family members can be a tremendous resource, they can also be financially or emotionally draining or restrict women’s mobility.



Social networks are a resource/ constraint

Conclusions



Many women with children, and particularly women in lower paying “woman’s jobs” do have shorter commute times from home to work than do men and this negatively affects their wages.



BUT talking in-depth to women who work outside the home and you get a better understanding of why we see this pattern in many cases.



Women with children have multiple responsibilities that require them to navigate time/space in complicated ways every day.

Conclusions



These multiple roles set spatial limits on women’s daily lives which limit their choices of work and lead them to low paying jobs.



The spatial boundedness of their lives also allows women to develop social networks in places to help meet their multiple roles as mothers, employees and family providers.



Women rely on different types of networks for different types of assistance. Women’s networks tend to be made up of other women.



These networks can be both constraining and/or enabling.

Policy Implications



Affordable and high quality child care located near home and work



Improve public transportation and lower costs



Job training and education in non traditional fields



Housing policies that do not disrupt social networks



Value “women’s work” in the home and workplace