Increasingly, experts recognize that gender has affected urban planning and the design of the spaces where we live and work. Too often, urban and suburban spaces support stereotypically male activities and planning methodologies reflect a male-dominated society. To document and analyze the connection between gender and planning, the editors of this volume have assembled an interdisciplinary collection of influential essays by leading scholars. Contributors point to the ubiquitous single-family home, which prevents women from sharing tasks or pooling services. Similarly, they argue that public transportation routes are usually designed for the (male) worker's commute from home to the central city, and do not help the suburban dweller running errands. In addition to these practical considerations, many contributors offer theoretical perspectives on issues such as planning discourse and the construction of concepts of rationality. While the essays call for an awareness of gender in matters of planning, they do not over-simplify the issue by moving toward a single feminist solution. Realizing that not all women gravitate toward communal opportunities, that many women now share the supposedly male commute, and that considerations of race and class need to influence planning as well, many contributors urge urban planners to provide opportunities that facilitate women's needs, such as childcare on the way to work and jobs that are decentralized so that women can be close to their children. Bringing together the most important writings of the last twenty-five years, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of planning theory as well as anyone concerned with gender and diversity.

Introduction : the intersection of gender and planning / Susan S. Fainstein and Lisa J. Servon
pt. 1. Public and private space
What happened to gender relations on the way from Chicago to Los Angeles? / Daphne Spain
Fear and lusting in Las Vegas and New York: sex, political economy, and public space / Alexander J. Reichl
What would a nonsexist city be like?: speculations on housing, urban design, and human work / Dolores Hayden
pt. 2. Planning theory
A gender agenda: new directions for planning theory / Leonie Sandercock and Ann Forsyth
Justice and the politics of difference / Iris Marion Young
Women and human development: in defense of universal values / Martha C. Nussbaum
Feminism and planning: theoretical issues / Susan S. Fainstein
pt. 3. Housing
Women's aspirations and the home: episodes in American feminist reform / Gwendolyn Wright
Mirror images: technology, consumption, and the representation of gender in American architecture since World War II / Joan Ockman
pt. 4. Economic development
City spatial structure, women's household work, and national urban policy / Ann R. Markusen
Microenterprise programs and women: entrepreneurship as individual empowerment / Lisa J. Servon
Space, place, and gender / Doreen Massey with Linda McDowell
pt. 5. Transportation
Women's travel issues: the research and policy environment / Sandra Rosenbloom
The northern drive: black women in transit / Sikivu Hutchinson
Gender planning in public transit: institutionalizing feminist policies, changing discourse, and practices / Gerda R. Wekerle

Susan S. Fainstein is a professor of urban planning at Columbia University.

Lisa J. Servon is an associate professor in the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School.