Introduction to section I

Abstract

In this section of the book the question of urban space comes to the fore, as authors consider how particular spaces in towns and cities were gendered, and what impact this gendering had on the development of political activity. In what sort of geographical locations was citizenship formed or practised? How did the spaces available shape ideas about what was thought to be an ideal civic being? And were these spaces, and the normative models of citizenship emanating from them, predominantly gendered as male or female?.