Suburban planning as an obstacle to gender equality?
Association 9 and its demands to reform urban planning and housing in the 1960s
Abstract
In this article, I discuss how the Finnish sex role association Yhdistys 9 (Association 9) participated in the critical discussion concerning the urban planning and architecture of modern suburbs in the mid-1960s. Young architects criticized suburbs for being located too far away from the city center as well as being boring and depressive places to live. Association 9 pointed out that suburbs also represented traditional sex role ideology in which the husband was the breadwinner, and the wife dedicated her life to mothering and housekeeping. Association 9 demanded that residential areas should be multifunctional areas that included workplaces, shops, other services, daycare for children, and recreational spaces that would also encourage social interaction between residents. By deconstructing the division between the masculine public sphere and the feminine private sphere, such multifunctional areas would also advance gender equality. Association 9 further suggested collective kitchens, restaurants, and cleaning services as a solution to combining full-time work and a balanced family life. The rationalization and collectivization of monotonous and time-consuming household chores would liberate both women and men for employment and give them more free time.
Keywords: sex role debate, gender equality, modern architecture, suburbs, feminism
