Feminist City: A Field Guide

by Leslie Kern

Feminist City is an ongoing experiment in living differently, living better, and living more justly in an urban world.

We live in the city of men. Our public spaces are not designed for female bodies. There is little consideration for women as mothers, workers or carers. The urban streets often are a place of threats rather than community. Gentrification has made the everyday lives of women even more difficult. What would a metropolis for working women look like? A city of friendships beyond Sex and the City. A transit system that accommodates mothers with strollers on the school run. A public space with enough toilets. A place where women can walk without harassment.

In Feminist City, through history, personal experience, and popular culture, Leslie Kern exposes what is hidden in plain sight: the social inequalities built into our cities, homes, and neighborhoods. Kern offers an alternative vision of the feminist city. Taking on fear, motherhood, friendship, activism, and the joys and perils of being alone, Kern maps the city from new vantage points, laying out an intersectional feminist approach to urban histories and proposes that the city is perhaps also our best hope for shaping a new urban future. It is time to dismantle what we take for granted about cities and to ask how we can build more just, sustainable, and woman-friendly cities together.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Urban Planning, Urbanism, Politics, Architecture, Womens

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2019

About the author

Leslie Kern is an associate professor of geography and environment/women's and gender studies and director of women’s and gender studies at Mount Allison University. She holds a PhD in women’s studies from York University. As an academic, Leslie writes about gender, gentrification, and feminism and teaches urban, social, and feminist geography. Her research has received a National Housing Studies Achievement Award and a Fulbright Scholar Award. Leslie currently lives in the territory of Mi’kmaqi in the town of Sackville, New Brunswick with her partner and their two senior cats. She runs an academic career coaching service and blog at https://www.lesliekerncoaching.com/ and tweets about all things feminist, academic, and urban on Twitter @LellyK.

Reviews

[Brandy Cross · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not the book that it advertises itself to be. In fact, if I were to rate it based on what it says on the cover, this would receive 1 star. This is not about reimagining spaces in light of women's needs, not at all.

Rather, most of this book is about women's experiences in the here and now, what life is like now, nd how women use those spaces. There's very little about improving, changing, or reimagining them. It is much more of an account, interspersed with autobiographic anecdotes about a woman's experience of the city - and personally I find her experiences to be somewhat iffy in that she has apparently just not noticed many, many problems women face until she had to directly experience them herself. That's not necessarily a problem because she recognizes them now, but it's still quite odd.

So, I would not at all read this book to consider the possibilities for making public spaces more accessible and friendly for women. This does not tackle this, even from the social perspective that would be necessary. It might be useful for those who have not experienced living as a woman in a city and who might not know those who have been pregnant, might not know those who have been catcalled, those who have faced sexual harassment and rape, etc. It might be a good resource for men.
Otherwise, there is just very little in this at all for anyone who actually knows what it's like to be a woman in a city.

Additionally, it's poorly organized, does not stay on topic, and frequently flits about to other issues. There's nothing wrong with this, except so little attention is paid to the promised information that it's really not about cities at all.

[Vartika · Rating 3 out of 5]

My very first realisation about how gendered inequities are built into urban landscapes came with a strong urge to pee–and no public restrooms for women in sight. Granted, sanitation isn't India's strong suit by a long shot, but that only 8% of all public toilets in New Delhi–the national capital–cater to women is a glaring statistic if there ever was one. Thanks to growing gentrification (sike), we can still access the loo at hotels and restaurants–though only if we're prepared to buy something first, which obviously excludes most women.

This dearth of places for to relieve oneself is, both literally and figuratively of course, just the tiny, pointed tip of the iceberg that is the patriarchal city. Leslie Kern's Feminist City is an accessible introduction to feminist geography that helps readers break it down (though only in some ways; more on that later). Blending scholarly insight with personal experience and notes from popular culture, the author explores how the ways in which we navigate work, motherhood, friendship, activism, violence, and being a woman at large is shaped by cities that are built to exclude our bodies.

Kern's theoretical framework casts a wide net of intersectionality; she emphasises at the outset how being a white, cisgender, able-bodied woman aids her experience of the city, and goes on to explore how concerns for convenience and safety of middle-class white women drive gentrification and prove dangerous to the lives of women and men who fall outside that category, such as the poor, the homeless, and people of colour.

Drawing on a vast range of feminist scholarship, Feminist City brings together various ways in which urban spaces reinforce patriarchal socialisation and affect the non-male psyche growing up:

"Gill Valentine’s research on adult versus youth spaces found that girls paradoxically identify public spaces, such as city streets, as “private,” because these spaces allow them anonymity away from the prying gaze of parents, teachers, and other caregivers.The home was strangely more like a public space, since girls didn’t feel a sense of privacy or control over their bedrooms and possessions here."

I enjoyed Kern's presentation of potent critiques against neoliberal feminisation of space, surveillance and carceral feminism, as well as her assertion that urban planning alone cannot address the severely undermined threat women face from people known to them. She gives due space to the dynamic geographies of fear and how these fears have material outcomes for our lives, while also challenging the undue nostalgia with which most people view urban life of the decades past:

"James Baldwin wrote about the same neighborhood as Jane Jacobs, where as a queer Black man he was regularly harassed by the police and viewed as a dangerous outsider, rather than part of the delightful diversity of Jacobs's own version of Greenwich Village…we need to set aside the rose-coloured glasses and notice who is missing from that picture of idealized city life."

That being said, this book does not really offer "an alternative vision of the feminist city" in the ways one might expect it. What is explored here is the ethos of the feminist city rather than what the city itself would look like, and is therefore frustratingly without 'solutions,' both in terms of design and new ideas, which are few and far between the personal anecdotes and how it is woven with observations from existing scholarship in the fields of feminist geography and urban studies. While it is short, I felt the need for better editing at certain points in this book that got repetitive without offering new insight. Another detail that caught my eye was Kern misspelling Hindi, the language, as "Hindu," the religious identity; the instances referring to non-western countries generally seemed somewhat poorly contextualised.

In sum, Feminist City is a highly readable introduction to the idea of and need for claiming space in man-made cities. However, one will have to look elsewhere for ideas concerning the act of claiming itself, especially since this book does not really give to a wider reading list.

[Indra Nooyi]

In her insightful book, Feminist City, Leslie Kern explores the gendered landscapes of urban life, asking the reader to consider what our cities would look like if they were designed with the needs of working women and dual-working couples in mind. I hope this book can galvanize a debate on this opportunity to re-think our cities. As Kern reminds us, the potential for improvement is vast.

[Marija Assereckova · Rating 1 out of 5]

The whole argument of this book is based on personal experiences. Unfortunately, there is very little data to support the author's claims (unlike in Invisible Women, by Caroline Criado Perez). I don't mind a personal perspective in this kind of writing, but you'll need more than assertions like "every woman feels the same!!" to convince other people.

But lack of evidence is not the worst. The book is filled with an enormous sense of entitlement and self-righteousness – the author projects her experiences and feelings onto every woman, and, by contrast, alleges that men need to have opposite experiences and feelings by default. Just a few examples here:

it's difficult for me to go to a restaurant alone –> all other women experience the same
spending retirement with a romantic partner looks boring as hell --> the rest of women don't want it too
I wanted to hide my pregnancy and was embarassed by my belly’s showy-ness --> applies to every woman ever pregnant etc.

True, sometimes Kern remembers that there are other, much less privileged women than her, and makes a formal declaration about privileges. But it's a rather condescending approach – she admits that women poorer than her might feel differently, but if a woman has means to go to a restaurant, she must feel as threatened there as Kern does.

Not that I'm against the discourse of feminist geography – actually, I think it's a topic worth exploring. But feminist perspective has always offered some kinds of alternative scenarios, whereas Kern becomes extremely vague when she tackles possible solutions. What's more, she's openly pessimistic about every change that's been made by far – everything one does to make the cities safer and better for one group of women, will make it worse for other demographic groups, ad infinitum.

P.S. It's quite tiresome to see "white men" as some kind of urban boogeymen on every second page. One might think that white men are a homogenous group of rich and privileged, moreover, no woman ever has got a degree in architecture and if she, by a miraculous chance, did, then she always resisted the pressure from the system.

P.P.S. In the introduction the author claims that "the category of woman is shifting" and then several times uses an expression "pregnant people". I can't help but ask if the category of woman is shifting, maybe women can then shift to be men? And if it's "people", not women who are pregnant, then what's the problem whatsoever? "People" isn't a gendered category, men are people too. If men feel safe in the city, then women should too – we're all people after all, right? (No).

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually travel by myself. I am not married, and my vacation times don't usually match with the people who I wouldn't mind traveling with. So for the past 19 years, I usually travel myself. It's nice to know that another woman checks out eating places the same way I do when traveling alone.

Kern's book is a look at how cities are not designed for women in mind. She acknowledges that she is writing it from a cis and white pov, but she does address minorities in the city as well, even going into how white women form part of the policing of space.

She doesn't offer many solutions, but she does point out changes and, perhaps, how some of the changes can make further changes.

I do wish that in her chapter about young girls in the city, she had relied on more than simply movies and personal experience. And addressed in more depth why in movies girls of color are shown of the city and white girls shown as of the bedroom.

Still a good read.

[Sunny Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kinda need to tap into geography as a field of study…!

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who deserves to be seen in public? And who does society try to tuck away?

A look at how the current and past approaches to urban planning are patriarchal and ableist at their heart.

Advances in planning driven by big data and other things, often fail to encompass marginalized peoples living outside the 8-5 carcentric reality of urban (and suburban and rural life). Not only does carcentric urban planning undercut women's ability to have time for themselves by spreading out access to areas and destroy public transport, but it also isolates women from support networks and community. An emphasis on helicopter parenting and the mommy wars also ensures women are further isolated—there's an interesting foresight into some of the greater extremes of tradwives being seen on social media today.

And, of course, affluent women pass on their problems to the less affluent and marginalized women they employ for assistance.

There is a lot of interesting good in this work, and it's pretty intersectional—Kern notes a lot of her gaps in knowledge and her work to rectify them.

What this is not, however, is really a re-envisioning of cities and spaces for women and other marginalized genders. It's more a pointing out of the inequality, and how that inequality—often unseen by the white men who make the plans—prevents gender equality or neutrality. While some countries are working on correcting this, many are not, and are in, in fact, doubling down on practices that force women, the elderly, the disabled and others back into a private and not public sector of life.

Highly recommend, as it involves envisioning a world of safety for everyone, not just white women.

But to do that, of course, we have to change everything. And in this current climate of white men grasping for ever increasing power and control, that seems less and less likely with each passing day.

Pairs well with Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net and Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot.

[anne larouche · Rating 3 out of 5]

Une lecture pour le moins décevante pour ce qu'on m'avait promis d'elle. On me l'avait suggérée comme si elle allait me faire voir la ville d'un autre oeil ; or, il s'agit plutôt d'un essai sur des thématiques féministes plus larges en prenant l'urbanité comme point commun. Dans ce contexte, je ne vois pas particulièrement un intérêt plus large qu'un seul chapitre aurait pu donner. On a répété que les mêmes barrières systémiques s'étendaient au transport en commun et aux espaces publics ; c'est bien, mais qu'en est-il des organisations des villes, de l'urbanisme, des infrastructures, de l'architecture, etc? C'est comme si on s'attelait au sujet en évitant ses éléments concrets, pourtant si constitutifs de ce qu'est la ville et de l'intérêt de ce livre. Qu'en est-il du contexte d'émergence des villes contemporaines, des évolutions qu'elles ont pu voir?

Je crois que le titre en tant que tel est bien mensonger. On s'attend à des propositions, des solutions, des nouvelles façons de voir la ville. Il aurait été plus exact de nommer ce livre "ville masculiniste : comment les centres urbains sont construits et construisent le patriarcat". Kern fait un portrait certes répétitif et parfois superficiel, mais un portrait tout de même de la ville dans cette perspective. Mais elle ne laisse pas imaginer, par contre, comment les villes pourraient être des milieux de lutte féministe au travers de leur réorganisation. Ce point est accentué par le fait que le simple fait d'être une femme dans la ville nous fait vivre ces expériences qui sont exposées. Attention, je ne dis pas que la sensibilisation n'importe pas, ou que simplement par le fait d'être femme bla bla bla ; simplement, je pense que les réflexions apportées vont simplement confirmer des pensées fréquentes pour beaucoup de femmes vivant en ville. Il s'agit encore une fois d'une preuve que le livre s'adresse aux personnes qui, au contraire, n'ont probablement jamais vécu ces embûches. Pour toutes ces raisons, je me demande beaucoup pourquoi ce livre a eu tant de succès. Je ne tire pas de thèse particulière qui aurait fait chavirer ma vision des choses - pas que ce soit le seul critère qui compte, mais c'est quand même ce à quoi mes lectures aspirent, surtout dans le cas où j'aimerais élargir mon spectre des féminismes.

[Paya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Świetna, bardzo wiele oczekiwałam od tej książki i się nie zawiodłam. Feministyczna geografka Leslie Kern przygląda się nie tylko miastom, ale także przestrzeniom prywatnym i zastanawia się, jak te przestrzenie się przenikają, jednocześnie zwracając uwagę na intersekcjonalność zagadnień, które należy brać pod uwagę, dzieląc się własnymi doświadczeniami, zwracając uwagę na to, czego od przestrzeni miejskiej mogą wymagać matki, czego osoby z niepełnosprawnościami, jak wygląda zabieranie przestrzeni osobom queer i mniejszościom etnicznym. Świetna analiza miasta, tego, czym miasto jest, jak je interpretujemy, czego możemy od niego wymagać i jak możemy je zmieniać. Moje wydanie było tym najnowszym z analizą sytuacji pandemicznej na świecie i tego, jak wpływa/wpłynęła ona na kobiety/transpłciowekobiety/queerkobiety itp.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a gift to me. As a white cis man, I learned a TON. Could not recommend enough.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise, scholarly, and personal survey of feminist geography of the city, looking at how cities are designed to perpetuate comfort and power for certain members of society (mass transit systems more often than not are set up for funneling white collar workers to and from urban cores and not for making it easy to do inter- or inner-city trips to school, errands, work, and back again) and how cities can be used as hotbeds of activism and social change. Has a very nice focus on intersectionality. Worth a read!

**Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Ash Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kern has a really clear view on any approach having to be intersectional and how a feminist city needs to be liberating for all. A lot of other works on gender and urbanism don't acknowledge other identities past cis-women so this was refreshing. The arguments made in this book are based in feminist geography and personal observations. There aren't many clear design/planning solutions or case studies mentioned, but I think this book provides a good place to start thinking about new possibilities for our built environment.

thx for the xmas give maia!! :)

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Geography is about the human relationship to our environment, both human-built and natural. A geographic perspective on gender offers a way of understanding how sexism functions on the ground. Women's second-class status is enforced not just through an actual, material geography of exclusion.

Feminist City was my first read for Verso Books new monthly subscription book club (back in July). I wouldn't have necessarily picked this one up so soon had it not been for that and I actually found it really interesting.

I thought it was great that Leslie Kern within the first few pages outlined her position as white, cis-gendered and able-bodied women and how that experience has guided lots of her interactions in city spaces. However she draws on the work of others to highlight that disabled individuals, people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities and other marginalised groups will all have different experiences within the city framework and identifies how geography further marginalises these communities.

Leslie Kern has a very critical and astute set of observations throughout this book as it's broken down into various chapters that focus on motherhood, female friendship, safety, and more. One of the points I found most interesting was about how white women's comfort has been used to marginalise and increase danger for people of colour and homeless people; as areas are gentrified, this pushes out the homeless and people of colour who are then vilified in these spaces.

Indeed, women's lack of comfort in certain spaces can be used as justification for a host of problematic interventions that increase danger for others, for example homeless people and people of colour, in pursuit of comfort for middle-class white women.

Kern does predominantly focus on London and Canadian cities as she outlines these are the ones she has the most experience and observations in. And she still manages to touch in on other cities and make broader observations about cities in general. I also don't think the London/Canadian city focus was a negative for the book as it served to strengthen her arguments and she offered multiple references to other works by feminist geographers and particularly feminist geographers of colour.

This book felt like an excellent starting point for understanding how we construct, interact with spaces and change city spaces to both the benefit and alienation of certain communities in society. And most importantly how this relates to feminism and demands for equality.

The extent to which violations of women's personal space via touch, words, or other infringements are tolerated and even encouraged in the city is a good measure as any for me of how far away we actually are from the social - and feminist city - of spontaneous encounters.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leslie Kern does a great job writing with intersectionality in mind, but Feminist City is limited by its frequent retelling of the author's own experiences as a straight, White, able-bodied, middle-class woman living in Toronto. It's a short read, but I was hoping it might be a little more dense with insight on feminist geographies and world-building, and biases in urban planning (as promised on the book's jacket). There were some interesting bits in about the use of fear and and the design of suburbs to keep women in the domestic sphere, and the lack of lesbian spaces in cities being a result of the gender pay gap. For the most part though, it read like a beginner's rundown on intersectional feminism, for which I'd sooner recommend the even shorter and more concise Feminism for the 99%.

[m. · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing book that adeptly related what it is like to be a woman in an urban environment. so many of these issues i knew on a personal level, but seeing them affirmed and verbalized blew my mind and made me look at the situation and all the possibilities in a different light.

have to admit i was initially dubious as i assumed that it would focus on the experience of a white woman in the global north. luckily, the author always considered more marginalized sectors, with an emphasis on what the "feminization" of the city means for all the people inhabiting it.

overall this was thoughtful and engaging. i feel like it has expanded my bounds intellectually and emotionally. highly recommended for fellow lovers of the city & believers in its potential!

[Emma Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many low ratings of Feminist City criticize it for being too anecdotal and not rooted in data. But isn’t personal experience a form of data? Every experience needs to be considered within its own context, and I believe Kern is intentionally presenting her lived experiences with a less positivist approach.

Intersectional feminism recognizes that women’s experiences and identities are shaped by factors like race, class, sexuality, disability, and nationality, leading to different forms of oppression and privilege. It rejects the notion that all women can be understood or related to in the same way and challenges the idea that relationships between women should be based on universal, shared experiences. Instead, it emphasizes understanding how systems like patriarchy, racism, and capitalism affect women differently. Attempting to relate to all women uniformly risks reinforcing the very oppressions feminism seeks to dismantle—something Kern avoids effectively in her book.
Despite these divisions, I still hold hope that we can form relationships and build solidarity that transcend these oppressive structures. There is potential for women to connect and support each other, not by erasing differences, but by understanding them and working to dismantle the systems that divide us.

This is why I appreciate that Leslie Kern does not essentialize women. Kern avoids this by not presenting women as a single, monolithic group with the same needs or concerns. Instead, she reflects deeply on her own personal experiences, acknowledging that they are unique to her and may not represent the experiences of all women. Rather than offering broad, sweeping statements about womanhood, she raises important questions that invite readers to think critically about the diverse ways women navigate life in urban environments.

Yes, she often references shows like Sex and the City in a positive way, almost as a way to cope with its more toxic elements. Rather than hating it, she turns it into something she can laugh at, which also helps her recognize just how much it shaped her and influenced western women through pop culture.


I love reading about female friendship and the idea of reimagining and creating a new vocabulary that represents friendship as something more than just a substitute for romantic relationships.Kern writes:

“Too often, women’s friendships are misunderstood as second-rate substitutions for romantic heterosexual relationships or veiled lesbian love. Certainly, there’s a long, often hidden history of women’s friendships as masks for actual lesbian relationships that couldn’t be publicly acknowledged. Even when lesbianism isn’t the subtext, close female friendships might be viewed as substitutes for romantic partnerships or as supplying something that romantic partners (especially male romantic partners) cannot.”

This resonates with me. When I started spending a lot of time with my friend Nina, people constantly asked if we were a couple, whether they were friends or random strangers at the club. I didn’t know how to answer. She felt like a partner, but not in a romantic way. I once joked that we were a couple, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized she wasn’t a substitute for a romantic partner or an urban loneliness. She was a friend I had dreamed of finding in a city full of people yet often so isolating. I wasn't with her because I didn’t want to be lonely—I was with her because she helped me feel more like myself and at home in the city. Together, we embraced urban adventures, facing challenges without fear. Our friendship allowed us to reflect on heartbreak, economic anxiety, and the often unfulfilling nature of global city life.

Kern suggests using friendship as a world-making force, one that challenges the boundaries imposed by traditional gender roles, poverty, and the political landscape. She poses a radical idea: if women invested even a bit more of their emotional labor into their friendships, it could disrupt the systems men rely on, destabilizing both the family unit and the state.


There are some parts where I wish Kern had been more nuanced, such as when she discusses how spaces like sports courts are designed with men in mind, often ignoring women. Rather than implying women don't play sports, she could have noted that these spaces are designed around the average height and physical build of men, which excludes many women.

Kern touches on many frustrations shared by women living in cities. She even highlights a similar frustration in students she teaches, recalling their exasperation when they realize that no amount of lighting or widened walkways will solve the patriarchy. As she puts it, “There are no straightforward solutions. Any attempt to improve urban safety has to grapple with social, cultural, and economic elements as well as the form of the built environment.”

Ultimately, Kern doesn’t claim to have all the answers. Instead, she asks important questions, evoking empathy and pushing us to consider “Who is missing from the picture of idealized city life?”

[Celine Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leslie Kern's Feminist City is a tremendously readable and fascinating introduction to feminist geography, and how cities are frequently designed and built to be hostile to women. Kern clearly loves cities, and believes in their potential: "The city is the place where women had choices open up for them that were unheard of in small towns and rural communities. Opportunities for work. Breaking free of parochial gender norms. Avoiding heterosexual marriage and motherhood…Developing new kinship networks and foregrounding friendships…"

But Kern is also critical of where architects, urban planners, and geographers have assumed a white, male default when thinking about cities—and how this has led to urban landscapes that frequently inhibit, frustrate, and even endanger women. She expands her argument across 4 succinct chapters: 'City of Moms' (on motherhood, childcare, and care labor in urban spaces), 'City of Friends' (on celebrating friendship), 'City of One; (on privacy and being alone in a city), 'City of Protest' (how the ability to engage in protest in a city is informed by gender, race, and class considerations), and 'City of Fear' (how women experience fear, harassment, and assault).

Each chapter is sharp, wise, and expanded my thinking. My favorites were 'City of Friends' and 'City of Protest' particularly insightful. 'City of Friends' is a thrilling affirmation of the power of women's friendships, and touches on the importance of lesbian and queer community spaces as well. Kern writes, "Too often, women's friendships are misunderstood as second-rate substitutions for romantic heterosexual friendships or veiled lesbian love…It seems that culturally we lack a language to adequately describe the character and quality of female friendships." She describes how cities, despite their flaws, are also "providing the environments where women can make and sustain these connections [of friendships], perhaps even over the course of a lifetime", in a way that challenges the norm that a heterosexual romantic partnership is the most important (or only) relationship to structure a life around. And 'City of Protest' celebrates both the political power of cities, and the potential for protest, as well as the ways in which protest norms and behaviors can unintentionally include working-class women, mothers, and many others in how they're structured.

One of the best things about Feminist City is that Leslie Kern always, always brings an intersectional approach to each issue. She frequently references Black and Indigenous scholars (such as fellow geographers Katherine McKittrick and Sarah Hunt, and Indigenous scholar Kim Tallbear). She acknowledges where gentrification can make white, economically privileged women safer at the expense of other women, and where a desire for safety can contribute to carceral feminism. In discussing women's safety on the streets, she acknowledges the vital role Take Back the Night campaigns have played in protesting sexual and domestic violence against women, as well as critiques of where they've failed working class and trans women. In a sharp but necessary challenge to undue nostalgia for an idealized urban past, Kern notes: "James Baldwin wrote about the same neighborhood as Jane Jacobs, where as a queer Black man he was regularly harassed by the police and viewed as a dangerous outsider, rather than part of the delightful diversity of Jacobs's own version of Greenwich Village…we need to set aside the rose-coloured glasses and notice who is missing from that picture of idealized city life."

She is critical, but hopeful—the last chapter, 'City of Possibility', affirms that there is so, so much potential in our cities. "Feminist visions of the city have been here all along…there are examples of both practices and ideals that are being lived right now, all along." And she cites the crucial role of Black Lives Matter and Fight for $15, as urban protest movements that are pushing for a better urban landscape for Black communities and working-class communities. They "ask us to think about new ways to organize paid work, care work, and social relations…They invite solidarity from everyone who wants to feel safe in their homes, on the streets, in the bathroom, at work, and at school. They recognize the intersections of gendered concerns with multiple other systems of privilege and oppression, refusing a feminism where raising the status of privileged white women is the marker of success."

I loved this book. And you might love it too, if you: believe in valuing and celebrating care work; joke about (or sincerely dream of) living in a commune with all your dearest friends someday; want a book on urbanism that isn't all about America, for once! (and includes stories about Toronto, Kigali, Hanoi, and Delhi); believe in women's friendships, urban spaces, and an equitable future for our cities.

[Emmkay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leslie Kern is a feminist geographer, which I didn't realize is now a discipline - good stuff! I guess I unknowingly passed the torch after my own rousing presentation in high school about the discriminatory planning that leads to long lineups for women's washrooms at events. In any event, I enjoy reading work by academics who try to reach outside the academy with their writing. I appreciated how ably and interestingly Kern surveyed and summarized lots of work around gender and city planning. In addition, she tied her work throughout to her own gendered experience of urban landscapes. We've all had similar (or different) experiences, and I liked approaching the work that's being done in this area through lived experience. The part about when her children were small took me right back to transit struggles many years ago with a sleeping toddler in a hard-to-fold stroller loaded with shopping and a big pregnant belly. Great linkages between the personal and the big questions.

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

A shockingly vapid and narcissistic book. No real research, no actual curiosities, just a constant parade of viral twitter stories and personal experiences that illustrate nothing.

[Iryna Chernyshova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Цікаво і жваво написано, але ми в паралельному всесвіті, бо більшість жінок у нас білі цисгендерні і найбільша загроза поки що від русні.

[Mattea Gernentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The extent to which anyone can simply 'be' in an urban space tells a lot about who has power, who feels their right to the city is a natural entitlement, and who will always be considered out of place... As a cisgender white woman, I'm highly unlikely to be asked to leave a public space, to have the police called on me, or to be followed through a department store. At the same time, however, I police my own clothing, posture, facial expressions, and other cues to avoid male harassment" (114).

When I posted this book on my Instagram story, I soon received an essay-masquerading-as-a-DM from someone in my hometown. She said, in essence, that she was worried about my soul and would be praying fervently for me. She said that "there is not a good ending for those of us who follow our passions." She said she feared I was listening to the world and potentially "misguided, carnal friends" (?!?). It absolutely bewildered and upset me. All of this because I posted a book with "feminist" in the title? Honey, where have you been? I've been thinking about, reading about, and writing about feminism all throughout my college career. And I choose to do so because of the lived example of Jesus, dignifying and empowering women despite the cultural norms of the time. This book is ultimately a guide to loving our urban neighbors well—providing better access to public restrooms, making public transit more accessible and hospitable for pregnant women, keeping women safe from assault and harassment on the street, resisting gentrification, and ensuring marginalized groups feel consistently welcomed in the spaces they navigate through.

I felt seen in this book, and I felt the Lord working through this book. As I walked around London, Kern's words deeply resonated. The fear I felt when a man stared at me in the Tube and then took the seat next to me as soon as it opened up. The quick pace I adopted when walking alone at night. The anxiety when my phone battery was below 5% and I wasn't yet back at my hostel. The very fact that I felt the need to book a women-only hostel room to avoid assault or uncomfortable situations. The woman who specifically asked me for directions after letting dozens of men pass by. Even though most of my experience was restorative and adventurous and exciting, there was always a part of my brain that I couldn't switch off—the portion bracing myself for harassment or violence. The worst case scenario. So, yes, I want to live in a "feminist city." I want us all to live in an environment more full of care, protection, and solidarity than the one we live in now. That shouldn't be controversial. Period.

4/4.5 stars. Some of this content overlapped with Caroline Criado-Perez' incredible Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, which I would recommend for a more thorough, all-encompassing perspective. Kern does well, however, in packing a wealth of information into a very compact book and recognizing her privilege.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

***I was granted an ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***

Have you ever wondered about who cities are designed for? Probably not. In fact, you may have noted that cities could be designed better but probably never considered who would benefit from the design change. In the book, Feminist City: A Field Guide by Leslie Kern examines how cities can not only be designed better for women but also the positive and negative impact cities have on women’s lives. Kern maintains that cities are generally designed with white able-bodied men in mind and points out the deficiencies in cities that make it harder for women to live there. For example, cities are not designed in ways to facilitate mothers with babies from no elevator access at some subway stations to few childcare centers near centers of work. Also, the author shows how important is it for a woman to occupy her own space in the city but how hard it is do so in peace and dealing with the threat of violence. However, Kern points out the city serves as a useful backdrop for important female friendships and serves as the center for many protests that have helped women have their voices heard. The best thing about this book is the author’s emphasis on finding intersectional solutions to building a feminist city, solutions that should strive to help women of every race, class and ability. The author also points out that many current solutions are lacking in this aspect and perhaps there isn’t any way to help all types of women equally. However, she isn’t cynical about this and encourages the reader to strive to find better solutions. I appreciate that the author was willing to point out that solutions weren’t always perfect and didn’t take a dogmatic approach to her position. If you’re looking for a book that will challenge your thinking on women’s place in the city and how we can take steps to make them better and more efficient and safer for women of all walks of life, then I recommend this book for you. One of the best books I’ve read this year.

Rating: 5 stars. Would highly recommend to a friend.

[Allison Sylviadotter · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. First she talks about the difference of experiences between being born female vs. male, THEN she says that it's for "all women, including those who choose to identify as women" (so, males/men). So she points out the reality of discrimination against women as females and then completely discounts women as a sex class and includes males. I just can't with this nonsense. Stop including males in feminist lit and theory, feminism is for FEMales, aka women. You can't "identify" into a biological sex class.

[Yecronopia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro de la autora. La traducción es bellísima. Un ensayo con fundamento, necesario para las épocas que corren. Es un libro para pensar e informarse. También para quienes investigan. Información clara y fuentes de libros que no conocía. Una de las mejores lecturas del año.

[Jess Reason · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kind of felt like I was being mansplained how it is to a be a woman in the city. It wasn’t at all what I was hoping for and I really struggled to follow the overall narrative clearly throughout the book.

[Valentina · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Because the built environment is durable over long time spans, we're stuck with spaces that reflect outdated and inaccurate social realities." Amazing book!

[Hestia Istiviani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read in English but this review is in Bahasa Indonesia

Geography is about the human relationship to our environment, both human-built and natural. A geographic perspective on gender offers a way of understanding how sexism functions on the ground.

Salah satu anggota Sobat Sospol, Nada, pernah mengunggah resensi buku ini. Judulnya menarik dan setelah dicek, dia hanya 200 halaman.

Feminist City memberikan perspektif baru untukku. Mengenai penataan kota yang selama ini masih bias gender tertentu: laki-laki, cis, dan berkulit putih. Memangnya seberapa besar pengaruhnya? Wah, sangat besar ternyata. Salah satunya adalah dalam hal ruang gerak yang aman, nyaman, dan namun privasi tetap terjaga meski di ruang publik.

Misalnya saja wanita yang tengah hamil. Pada bulan-bulan ke-6 hingga 9, sudah barang tentu perutnya semakin membesar. Wanita hamil pasti langsung terlihat di keramaian (being seen) namun sayangnya, ruang geraknya di fasilitas publik terbatas. Membuatnya tidak aman dan nyaman. Bahkan seringkali harus "beradu" dengan hal lain. Masalah seperti ini menjadi sorotan Leslie Kern. Ia pun mengkritisi bahwa kehadiran ahli tata kota, arsitek, dan ahli geografi di luar gender laki-laki, berkulit putih, dan cis masih sangat sedikit.

Women can never fully escape into invisibility because their gender marks them as objects of the male gaze.

Dari Feminist City aku banyak belajar kalau masih ada banyak pekerjaan rumah dalam sebuah kota untuk menjadikan kotanya benar-benar layak huni. Aku juga sempat bertanya, bagaimana definisi "layak huni" yang seringkali dijadikan embel-embel supaya sebuah kota terlihat wah? Apakah benar mereka sudah memperhitungkan wanita, LGBTQ, penduduk kulit berwarna ke dalam hitungan mereka dalam mendesain sesuatu? Aku sendiri cukup tercengang dengan banyaknya data yang diberikan oleh Kern, mengatakan kalau ruang publik masih "merampas" privasi mereka yang bukan laki-laki berkulit putih.

Aku sih inginnya semua membaca Feminist City agar menyadari kalau representasi itu begitu penting dalam semua aspek kehidupan manusia termasuk dalam tata kota.

[staykind · Rating 4 out of 5]

on the academic side, but validation that its an able ist, patriarchical world. but it doesnt have to be.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ook zijn er niet per se oplossingen besproken, geeft dit boek een heel interessant en soms schokkend inzicht op het leven in steden en hoe vrouwen, people of color, mensen met beperkingen en non-hetero mensen vaak anders in een stad bewegen en zijn dan mannen.

[Gautam Bhatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this as much as I'd hoped to, because of US/Canada-centric nature of the analysis (understandable, given the author's own location, and a reflection not on the book, but on my subjective preferences as a reader). Despite that, some fascinating insights about urban political geography, and the potentialities - as well as limits - of urban design in realising substantive equality.