The construction of women’s social spaces through physical exercise in urban China

Abstract

By applying feminist geographical theories and qualitative research methods, this article reveals Chinese women’s exercise experiences in urban spaces and discusses how women, through physical activity in neighbourhoods, public places and commercial facilities, constructed social spaces of their own. The findings show that exercise spaces are potentially sites for women’s health, well-being, social networking and collective empowerment. They challenge traditional gendered urban spaces by deconstructing the dual structure of ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres, inducing women to gradually shift from the ‘edge’ to the ‘centre’. Though the spatial differences in women’s physical activities reflect the diversity and dynamics of women’s spatialities, they also imply the continuous social powers on women in exercise fields, where gendered disparities and class stratification may be sustained.

Keywords:

• KEWORDSGender
• social spaces
• physical exercise
• Chinese cities
• feminist geography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Chinese National Social Science Fund [grant number 17BTY048].