Women and Urbanization

Abstract

The article generalizes on the basis of two field studies conducted in slum areas (Ratmalana near Colombo in Sri Lanka and Khlong Tocy in Bangkok. Thailand) by Susanne Thorbek. who has her doctorate in Cultural Sociology. The article introduces some reflections on the most fundamental changes as a result of urbanization, the radical separation between factory and family, between the social units which are responsible for the production of things (and value) and of human life. This separation has grave consequences for women (and thus also for men) it is argued, and it becomes manifest and more extensive with urbanization This separation is the structural basis for the sharpened gender-struggle which develops in the cities, some outcomes of which are seen in terms of the changed definitions of the genders and their relationships, as well as the worldwide tendency to feminization of poverty. The impact of gender-struggle on women's work for incomes is discussed, a struggle which seems to be considerable since most women are dependent on men's networks or their relationship to individual men for access to reasonably paid work in both the registered firms and in most of the informal sector, or they are dependent on their male relatives' networks. Even in that part of the informal sector where they extend household chores into the market place (food, drinks, loans, small shops, prostitution), women are still partly dependent on such networks although the form may differ somewhat between the two areas. The forms and functions of families are likewise areas for gender-struggle and it is not only argued that city-life poses the extended and especially the women-centered family as a need for women but also that the cultural ramifications of gender-struggle have an important impact on the realization of such needs The mothers without husbands are also discussed in this context Finally, a few clues are given concerning the differences between the slum cultures and women's integration in these slum cultures It is argued that either women's problems, that is problems with the production of life, are taken up as important topics by the whole slum culture, or women's problems are seen as their's alone, which then means that women become the problem in the slum culture The study from Khlong Toey in Bangkok is published in Voices from the City, (Zed Books 1987) and the other is forthcoming.