Is more better?. Mark II - With reference to women town planners in Britain

Greed, Clara H.; Greed, Clara

Abstract

This article discusses whether more women entering the town planning profession necessarily means improvement and forms a sequel to an earlier paper on women surveyors (WSIF 11(3) pp. 187-197). It is based on research currently being undertaken on the position of women in town planning, which investigates the present day situation, and reflects upon the historical record. First, although there are more women - percentage wise - in town planning than surveying, women's 'place' is constrained by the planners' world view, so that women planners fare no better than women surveyors in reaching senior positions which would enable them to have the power to shape the built environment. Second, it is often imagined that the 'women and planning' movement is relatively recent and that great progress has been made. It is argued in the second part of the article that this is not so, as women were ahead of the men in town planning matters a hundred years ago and were progressively excluded by the professionalisation of town planning. The present 'women and planning' movement is nothing but a pale shadow of what went before, narrowly confined within patriarchal governmental structures, and thus vulnerable to future marginalisation or control. © 1993.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 1993
• Journal: Women's Studies International Forum
• Print ISSN: 0277-5395
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 255-270
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395%2893%2990055-E
• Keywords: women, gender, town planning, professional subcultures, built environment professions, inequality, social exclusion
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1109535
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395(93)90055-E
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Cross-reference with Is More Better? (1988) http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/24111/