By Vanya Kahmann and Alice van Veen

After a long and nice summer the new academic year has finally started which means that the critical urbanists are back from holiday, well rested and fueled with new ideas. The prospect of having very little urbanism in our lives for over two months was very gloomy and frightening to us so we invited everyone to join the critical summer book club! This summer many of us have read Feminist City by Leslie Kern, a book that gives an interesting perspective on current (feminist) urban issues and thus is a must read for every Urban Studies student. We are looking forward to the first critical urbanist meeting of the academic year where we will greet the new first years and discuss the book.

Feminist City by Leslie Kern: A précis
“You’d never think that gender bias influences the height and position of skyscrapers or the development of a wind tunnel, but there you have it”, – this is one of many intriguing claims by Leslie Kern, the author of the book Feminist City, who explores the daily lives of women in the city. A critical piece of writing mostly based on the personal experience of the author and academic research mixed with popular literature and films, Leslie Kern’s book informs the public on a wide range of topics regarding the life of women in male-dominated metropolitan areas. By touching upon the endless struggles that women face, Kern reflects on her own experience in five chapters: City of Moms, City of Friends, City of One, City of Protest, and City of Fear. The feminist author starts with describing her life as a mother in the city: the constant unwanted attention of men and the inability of public infrastructure to meet mothers’ needs; she goes on to outline the nuances of a woman’s social and private life and delves into the issue of fear that women experience in cities on a daily basis.

 

Kern’s both exciting and shocking stories do a great job at informing the general public of the existing issues surrounding contemporary urban planning, socioeconomic tendencies, societal norms, and much more. The book is an introduction to the concept of feminism within an urban context. How do skyscrapers depict the patriarchal tendencies of modern economics?

Why are suburbs reinforcing male dominance in family households? What is the reason behind women paying more for public transit than men? The Feminist City gives explicit answers to these questions by critically analyzing the author’s own behavioral patterns, as well as those of the men and women surrounding her.

 

Although Leslie Kern does not propose a lot of specific solutions to save women from the patriarchal threats, she encourages her readers to reflect on the current situation in the world – the inequality that directly or indirectly influences us all. It hence comes as no surprise when Kern proposes changes that benefit all citizens, not only women. She emphasizes the importance of accounting for the LGBTQI+ and black communities, disabled people, children, the elderly, and other groups of citizens that are all undermined in a male-dominated society.

A city is a place where people with different social and ethnic backgrounds, levels of income, physical abilities, and personal interests come together to form part of a unified system. Most cities, however, fail to meet the seemingly utopian goals of encouraging and providing for an empathic and collaborative society.

Leslie Kern ends her book with the chapter City of Possibilities: “The feminist city is an aspirational project, one without a “master” plan that in fact resists the lure of mastery. The feminist city is an ongoing experiment in living differently, living better, and living more justly in an urban world.”

Meet the author
In further exciting news, THUS (the hague union of students) has invited Leslie Kern to speak online to Leiden University students! This meeting will take place on the 20th of October at 17.00 and is open for everyone to join. Leslie Kern will especially focus on colonial thinking in her talk but there will also be an open floor where she will answer questions about her book. The link to this talk will be shared two weeks in advance on ‘the hague union of students’ social accounts. This is a great opportunity for Urban Studies students to be able to talk to such an important figure in our field and very exciting for every critical urbanist who has read the book. We are therefore very grateful to THUS for organising this because it could not be more perfectly suited to our summer book club.

Critical Urbanists meeting
After many online critical urbanists meetings we are very excited that we will (hopefully) be able to meet in person! We will get together on Sunday the 19th at 19.00 to catch up and discuss Feminist City. We especially invite prospective students (i.e. that will start studying this year) to join as it is a great way to connect with fellow students and to dive into urban topics. Follow Astus on instagram for further information about the meeting or email the critical urbanists to join the whatsapp chat. You can find Feminist City as an ebook in the Leiden Catalogue.

Contact information
Instagram:

• thehagueunionofstudents (THUS)
• astusthehague

Email:

 criticalurbanists.astus@gmail.com

 

How to access Feminist City?

Feminist City is available in the Leiden Catalogue or you can email the critical urbanists for the pdf.