The relationship between domestic space and gender identity: Some signs of emergence of alternative domestic femininity and masculinity

• Main Author: Cătălina-Ionela Rezeanu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bucharest 2015-12-01
• Series: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology
• Subjects: Hegemonic masculinity; gendered space; spatial practice; material culture; doing and undoing gender; interpretive synthesis
• Online Access: http://compaso.eu/wpd/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Compaso2015-62-Rezeanu.pdf

The premise of this article is that, by introducing domestic space in the analysis of gender identity, one might gain a more nuanced understanding of how gender and power are co-constitutive. The research question is what one could learn from the conclusions of recent studies about the relationship between gender identity and domestic space, by analyzing it as a way of “doing and undoing gender” through spatial practices. We conducted an interpretive synthesis, focusing on 20 articles published in the last ten years on the topics of domestic space, masculinity, and femininity. We show the traditional normative model of gender identity is still strong, but there are some signs, of the emergence of alternative domestic masculinity and femininity, based on the tendency to reconsider the value of domesticity, and to transgress traditional gender oppositions (mind and body, rational and emotional, public and private, work and domesticity). We discuss the implications of the findings for understanding and refining the concepts of doing and doing gender, and gendered space.