Geography, gender, and the workaday world (Hettner-Lectures)

In her Hettner-Lecture, Susan Hanson talked about the role of women in the U.S. labor market. Based on the observation that women tend to work in different types of jobs and occupations and earn less money, Hanson shows how the geography of everyday life can contribute to an understanding of these gender-related differences. Therefore a geographic perspective is essential to creating urban labor markets in which opportunity is not arrayed by gender. Hanson furthermore focuses on recent debates on entrepreneur-ship by carefully examining the geographic contexts within which people launch businesses. She argues that a feminist and geographical analysis helps to understand that entrepreneur-ship is much more than just the engine of economic growth. "Es ist ein groáes Verdienst der beiden Texte, die ueberragende Relevanz der Geographie des Alltagslebens fuer die Entstehung und Reproduktion geschlechtsspezifischer Räume aufzuzeigen." geographische revue .