WOMEN AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE Exploring Woments Access to Participation in a Democratic Society by ELIZABETH ANNE HOULE A thesis submittd to the Department of Geography in confonnity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Queen's University Kingston, Chtario, Canada Februaxy 2000 Copyright O Elizabeth Anne Houle, 2000 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 ,,,da du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Votre réTércMœ Our fik Notre refdrem The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seU reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfoxm, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thése. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent êeimprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. In BeStmchual TrCllLSformutionof the Public Sphere, Jurgen Habennas (199 1) identified the public sphere as an arena in which citizens could enter into a critique of the state. Through discourse in the public sphereycitizens in a democracy have the opportunity to participate in the shapmg of their society and state tbrough the creaîion of 'public opiniont- However, not al1 citizens have equal access to this participation, and it is the redcted access of women to the public sphere, and thus to participation in the formation ofpublic opinion, that 1 examine in this paper. - In North A-can society, hegemonic constructions of women's and men's roles have redted in the gendered and spatial separation of the public and private spheres, undenmitïng the physical separation of cities and suburbs, and creating what feminists have referred to as the 'public/pnvate dichotomy'. Women's activities are seen to be primarily associated with the private sphere of the famiIy and domestic life, and are located in the suburbs, Men, on the other han& are associated with the city, and the public spheres of political and economic activity. Because of hegemonic constructions of women which relegate them to the private sphere of the family, women have had restricted access to activities ranging fiom waged labour to the attainment of political office. Rigid gender divisions of society and space must be dissolved if women are to achieve equal access to the rights and obligations of citizenship. Women must also be allowed eqdpartnership in the creation of public opinion, and thus equal participation as citizens in a dernomtic society, My first debt of gratitude is to my advisor, Peter Goheen. Thank you for your support, your insightfùl comments, your good humour and, of course, your patience. Thank you also to Evelyn Peters, for stimulakg discussions. Thanks also to the staff of the Queen's Geography Department, especially Sheila MacDonald and Kathy Hoover for their invaluable assistance in helping graduate students llke myseIf sort through the rnaze of institutational bureaucracy. 1am gratefixi for the continued support and encouragement fiom my family and fien&- First, to the Whiting clan for taking me into their hearts and homes, and becoming like a second family to me. Special thanks to Pat Whiting, whose dithgencouragement, support and h-endship has been my rnainstay- Thanks a diion to Juiie Wong Hollyer, my Idtirnate' buddy, who's shared rny ups and downs and who's always believed in me. And to Lori Roche, for her fiiendship, her yummy dinners, and for being there whenever 1 need a distraction or a giggle. Thanks aIso to my long-distance buddies and life-long fnends, Cannen Binder, Adele McDonald and Anne Marie Ongaro, Your fiendships over the years have been a continued source of strength, inspiration and pleasure to me. Lastly, thank you to rny sister Marie Wilkinson, for letting me bounce ideas off of you, thesis-related or otherwise- And thank you to my motber, Rosalie Houle, who is always thefor me. 1 love you, Mom. iii DEDICATION In memory of my father, Leopold Houle. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgments Dedication Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 . The history and formation of the public sphere; Summary of key points m ne - ' . - . Shu~~rdTrans$ornaR'on of the Public Sphere; Limitations of the bourgeois public : . - sphere; Women and the pubfic sphem; Recuperating the public sphere; Ovexview of . the thesis . CEAPTER 2: WOMEN'S MOBILITY AND THE BUET ENVIRONMENT 18 INTRODUCTION Layout of the buik environment THE NINETEENTH CENïURY Physical conditions; Social stresses; Dominant ideologies CREATION OF THE SUBURBS The changing North Amcrican city EVOLUTION OF THE SUBURBS The early 20th century; ïhe post-war years; Late 20th centuy suburbs CONSTRAXNTS TO FEMALE ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION Economic participation and democracy; Occupational segregation by gender; The jomey to work PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS TO MOBlLITY Safety; Spaces of representation CONCLUSIONS CHAPTER 3: WOMEN, CITLZENSHIP AND DEMOCRACY INTRODUCTION Definhg citizenship WOMEN'S ACCESS TO THE SOCIAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF cITX?ZENsEIP WOMJZN'S ACCESS TO THE POLITICAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF cmsm Contemporary theories of democracy; Democracy in the late twentieth century History of liberal democracy; Limitations of contemporary democracies Redefïnïng the political CONSTRAINTS TO WOMEN'S POLITICAL PARTICIPATION LeveIs of female participation; Voting prionties: women vs. me& Conmaints identifîed by female candidates; Women's attitudes toward running for political office; Attitudes towards women in politics CaGPTER 4: WOMEN AND THE MEDIA INTRODUCTION REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN THE MEDIA Gender stereotyping; The media and hegemony; Challenging the notion of hegemony; Representation of femaIe candidates and politicians THE ROLE OF WOMEN l[N TEE PRODUCTION OF THE MEDIA Women's participation as media workers; The news as a masculine genre; Increasing fdeparticipation and the roIe of media conventions; Media shape the news THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT AND THE MEDIA Wenging the mass media: license challenges; CaIls for revision of journaliçtic codes of ethics; Coverage of the women's movement; "If you can't beat lem, join 'em": using the media to publicize feminist issues; Women's alternative media; Women's progress in maimaream media FlJïURE PROSPECTS: NEW MEDIA FORMATS AND TECHNOLOGIES Audience discussion programs; The Intemet and electronic media CHAfTER 5: WOMEN AND TEiE PUBLIC SPHERE: CONCLUDING REMARKS CfFAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION By 'the public sphere' we mean kst of al1 a realrn of our social Iife in which something approaching public opinion cm be formed. Access is guaranteed to a11 citizens. A portion of the public sphere cornes into being in every conversation in which private individuah assemble to form a public body. They then behave neither Iike business or professional people transacting private afFairs, nor like members of a constitutional order subject to the legal constraints of a state bureaucracy. Citizens behave as a public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion - that is, with the guarantee of fkeedorn of assembly and association and the fieedom to express and publish their opinions - about matters of general interest. In a large public body this bdof co111n1unication requires specific means for trandtting information and innuencing those who receive it. Today newspapers and magazines, radio and TV are the media of the public sphere. We speak of the political public sphere in contrast, for instance, to the literary one, when public discussion de& with objects comected to the activity of the state. Although state activity is so to speak the executor, it is not a part of it....Only when the exercise of political control is effectively subordinated to the democratic demand that idormation be accessiile to the public, does the political public sphere win an institutionalized influence over the government through the instrument of law-making bodies (Habermas 1974,49). The ideal of democracy encompasses the possibility of goveniment %y-the-people', that its institutions and procedures express the actual will of those governcd; 'for-the-people', that it will act effectively in the interests of the people; and 'of-the-people', implying that citizens of every social background are eligible to participate in the process of governing (Flew Z 979, 87- 88). For democracy to be realized, citizens must have access, directly or indirectly, to the process of govemance. Thus, there must exist a realm in which the needs and interests of 'the people' may be ascertained as well as a mechanism for measlning both the interests and the will of the people. An opportuniQ for formal political participation exists where citizens can coxnmunicate their needs and desires directly through votïng, belonging to a political party, carnpaigning or holding public office. Here the will of the public can be measured in the polling booth. A second realm, outside of forma1 government channels also exists, where individuals or groups of citizens can cornmunicate indirectly with the members of their goveming bodies. It is this realm, the public sphere, to which Jurgen Habennas refers in the opening passage. The openhg quote illustrates some of the key characteristics of Habermas's conception of the public sphere. First, it would provide an arena in which "something approaching public opinion" could be foxmeci. For the members of the public sphere to legitimately exercise infiuence over the state, they must represent the will of 'the people'. Such is the 'public opinion' to which Habermas refers, and, as he illustrates, there is a strict process which muçt be undertaken in order to ensure that it is in fact the will of the people.