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| FEMINIST GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH ON THE BEHAVIOR SPACES OF FEMALE RESIDENTS IN CHINESE CITIES |
| CHAI Yan-wei1, WENG Gui-lan1, LIU Zhi-lin2 |
1. Department of City and Regional Planning, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
2. Dept. of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, USA |
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Abstract Significant progress has been seen since last century in the western society. Hum an geography research has been shifted to some new fields, which emphasize more on behavior of individual and sub-groups in the society.This leads to the emergence of the post-modernism geography, which puts more emphasis on human being and their differences in western society. In this context, the study of female residents in western countries from feminist perspective achieves fast development, especially in the difference between male and female as well as within women. Female residents, as an important sub-group in the Chinese society, are facing the remarkable environmental changes and new challenges after The Open and Reform of China. Because of the disintegration of traditional DANWEI system and imperfectness of security system for women, Chinese female residents are more and mo re marginalized and impoverished which means that they have become a disadvantageous group out of the mainstream. Their daily activities and behavior spaces are limited because of the restrictions coming from both work and family. Research of gendered spaces of Chinese cities can be taken from the perspectives of behavior spaces of individual residents and feminist view. This research should focus not only on the characteristics of female residents in commuting, shopping and recreation and the comparative study between male and female in these issues, but also on the disadvantageous sub-groups within fem ale residents such as unemployed women, migration women and senior women as well as those distinct sub-groups such as white-collar women, single women and career women, all of which have faced distinct situations and different restrictions. Comparative research of fem ale residents' behavioral spaces between and within cities is necessary to address the effect to women's behavior spaces because of different city planning and city environments.
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Received: 25 March 2002
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2003, Vol. 18 
