THEORIES OF FEMINIST GEOGRAPHY   2700W

DOES A FEMINIST GEOGRAPHY NEED BE PRIMARILY CONCERNED WITH THE LIVES OF WOMEN?

In relation to the essay title, according to Dias et al (2008), Hesse- Biber (2012) and McDowell (1992), there are significant diversity and heterogeneity among feminist geography and its research, with no single methodology or epistemology. Therefore, instead of viewing feminist geography as a static sub-discipline, feminist geography should be examined by looking at a wide range of work produced by feminist geographers addressing the issues found in different contexts, with varying research aims. By examining existing studies, this essay aims to demonstrate the fact that some aspects of feminist geography have, in fact, been primarily concerned with lives of women in a socio- spatial context. Subsequently, this essay also aims to demonstrate that feminist geography did not engage exclusively with the lives of women; by examining practices within the geography discipline, associated with the discipline’s exclusion of female, feminist geographer have offered important insights for geographers in understanding gender bias embedded in geography, and has facilitated the re-evaluation of geographic knowledge and practices among scholars.

According to Dixon et al (2014), feminist geography is primarily concerned with improving women’s lives by identifying, and to develop an understanding of the sources of women’s oppression, as well as the dynamics and spatiality of the oppression. This description of feminist geography is mirrored by work produced by feminist geographers that has adapted Marxist theory in examining the relations among