Women in the city : Identifying the gynocentric zone in Melbourne and Sydney, 1880s to 1920s
Journal article
Swain, Shurlee. (2021). Women in the city : Identifying the gynocentric zone in Melbourne and Sydney, 1880s to 1920s. Australian Historical Studies. 53(2), pp. 178-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2021.1901947
Authors | Swain, Shurlee |
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Abstract | Feminist analyses have shown how from the mid-nineteenth century women shaped the cities in which they lived. This article argues for the existence of an urban gynocentric zone, the site of a cluster of women-owned businesses charged with handling the unwanted products of women’s bodies. Shaped by shame, it constituted a female space within a larger metropolis, invisible, unacknowledged, yet well enough known to be a place of ready resort for women who needed its services. The article analyses the network of services businesswomen developed to do the dirty work necessary to cleanse the city of moral impurity, and the ways in which they negotiated the taint that such transgressive work necessarily involved. In so doing it promises to inform wider debates about the history of abortion, midwifery, baby farming and adoption. |
Year | 2021 |
Journal | Australian Historical Studies |
Journal citation | 53 (2), pp. 178-195 |
Publisher | Routledge |
ISSN | 1031-461X |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2021.1901947 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-85104469617 |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 178-195 |
Publisher's version | License All rights reserved File Access Level Controlled |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 13 Apr 2021 |
Publication process dates | |
Deposited | 02 Aug 2022 |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8y117/women-in-the-city-identifying-the-gynocentric-zone-in-melbourne-and-sydney-1880s-to-1920s
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