Cities as Catalysts of Gendered Social Change? Reflections from Zambia

Abstract

Across the world, people in urban rather than rural areas are more likely to support gender equality. To explain this global trend, this article engages with geographically diverse literature and comparative rural–urban ethnographic research from Zambia. It argues that people living in interconnected, heterogeneous, densely populated areas are more likely to see women performing socially valued, masculine roles. Such exposure incrementally erodes gender ideologies, catalyzing a positive feedback loop and increasing flexibility in gender divisions of labor. Women in densely populated areas also tend to have greater access to health clinics and police and so are more able to control their fertility and secure external support against gender-based violence. The urban is not inevitably disruptive, though. Experiences of the urban are shaped by international and national policies, macroeconomic conditions, and individual circumstances. Through this comparative ethnography, this article contributes to literature on the drivers of change and continuity in gender ideologies.

在全世界上, 居住于城市的人较乡村的人更可能支持性别平等。为了解释此一全球趋势, 本文涉入地理上多样的文献, 以及赞比亚的比较城乡民族志研究。本研究主张, 生活在相互连结、异质且人口集中区域的人们, 更可能见到女性扮演被社会重视的男性角色。此般暴露, 逐渐溶蚀了性别意识形态, 啓动正向的反馈迴圈, 并逐渐增加性别劳动分工的弹性。人口集中地区中的女性, 同时倾向拥有取得健康医疗和警备的更大管道, 因而更能控制自身的生育和确保应对性别暴力的外在资源。但城市却并非注定具有颠覆性。城市经验由跨国与国家政策、巨观经济条件, 以及个人因素所形塑。本文通过上述比较民族志, 对于有关改变与延续性别意识形态的驱力之文献做出贡献。

En todo el mundo, lo más probable es que sea más la gente de las áreas urbanas que la gente de las rurales quienes apoyen la igualdad de género. Para explicar esta tendencia global, este artículo se ocupa de la literatura geográficamente diversa y de la investigación etnográfica rural-urbana comparativa de Zambia. Se sostiene que la gente que vive en áreas interconectadas, heterogéneas y densamente pobladas está más inclinada a ver a las mujeres desempeñando papeles masculinos socialmente valorados. Tal exposición crecientemente erosiona las ideologías de género, catalizando una curva de retroalimentación positiva e incrementando la flexibilidad en las divisiones del trabajo por género. Las mujeres de las áreas densamente pobladas también tienden a disfrutar un mayor acceso a las clínicas de la salud y a la policía, y de esa manera tienen mayor capacidad de controlar su fertilidad y de asegurar ayuda externa contra la violencia de género. No obstante, lo urbano no es inevitablemente perturbador. Las experiencias de lo urbano están configuradas por las políticas internacionales y nacionales, las condiciones macroeconómicas y por las circunstancias individuales. A través de esta etnografía comparativa, este artículo contribuye a la literatura relacionada con los determinantes del cambio y la continuidad en las ideologías de género.

Key Words:

• cities
• gender
• rural
• social change
• social norms
• urban

关键词：:

• 城市
• 性别
• 乡村
• 社会变迁
• 社会常规
• 都市。

Palabras clave:

• ciudades
• género
• rural
• cambio social
• normas sociales
• urbano

Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful to my Zambian participants, who shared their reflections with me and provided useful comments on earlier drafts. This article has also benefited from constructive criticism from Ash Amin, Nicola Ansell, Sylvia Chant, Matthew Gandy, James Ferguson, Linda McDowell, Karla Poewe, Sarah Radcliffe, AbdouMaliq Simone, Liam Swiss, Göran Therborn, Richard Walker, and Matt Wilde. Any deficits are clearly mine.

Notes

1. Theorists disagree over (1) how we should conceptualize the urban; (2) whether economic agglomeration is inevitable; and (3) given the diverse histories, economies, spatialities, and imaginaries of cities across the Global North and South, whether we should even posit a singular definition of the urban. Scott and Storper (2014) suggested that cities are all driven by and produce economies of agglomeration. Others differ (Amin and Thrift 2002; Brenner and Schmid, 2015; Parnell and Pieters 2016; Lall, Henderson and Venables 2017). All still recognize, however, that cities bring together, juxtapose, and (through mutual learning, new alliances as well as contestation) enable the recalibration of intersecting regional and transnational flows of ideas, information, histories, ambitions, performances, media, labor, commodities, capital, and competing authorities. Interconnectedness, heterogeneity, and population density appear to be common denominators, with broad agreement (Amin 2007; Scott and Storper 2014; Simone 2014; Brenner and Schmid 2015).

2. This emphasis on other people's expectations and concerns for social respect echoes earlier ethnographies of Zambia (Crehan 1997).

3. The 1969 census presents Kitwe's working African population as including 36,017 men and 3,283 women (CSO 1973).

4. This is not to imply that gender ideologies have been eradicated in Kitwe but only to highlight social change. Discrimination and hierarchical practices persist (Hansen 1997; Mususa 2010; Barankariza 2016).

5. I think they became more open with me because we cultivated rapport over time. It is also possible, however, that I inadvertently facilitated critical reflection and a shift in their internalized gender ideologies or that they presented themselves as more egalitarian because I unwittingly signaled approval for such.

6. This was not the case in the 1960s and 1970s, when urban men could largely provide for their families single-handedly.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the London School of Economics and Political Science and UNU-WIDER.

Notes on contributors

Alice Evans

ALICE EVANS is a Lecturer in Social Science of Development in the Department of International Development, King's College London, London WC2R 2LS, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. She researches inequality, social change, and global production networks.