New approaches to gender in regional science

Abstract

While regional science argues that space matters, it has long ignored the important context of gender, specifically how gender inhabits space. Central to this discussion is the notion that gender implies a broader understanding than merely biological sex. Nelson (2003) argues for a humanist approach that widens the scope of analysis away from the binary to an inclusive feminist perspective. Rather than thinking merely in terms of masculine-good/feminine-bad, Nelson (1996) argues that economics, and by extension regional science, should consider both the positive and negative attributes of each gender. This means that regional science must do more than include sex as an explanatory variable in its analysis by examining how gender constructs change not only potential outcomes but indeed how spatial relationships are perceived by acknowledging gender and space’s own social constructions. Doing so will help regional science to become more relevant and its policy prescriptions more prescient.