The new urban space & spatilal practices of women: A study on working women in Dhaka city

Abstract

The city of Dhaka is now visible with eye-catching shopping malls, pioneering fashion house and stylish beauty parlor. Together with the rise of these new service sectors and escalating consumer culture, the new urban space has also been endowed with the presence of women in public space of the city.The study is an endeavor to demonstrate an interaction between the new urban space and spatial practices of working women in the city of Dhaka. These women are working in different shopping malls, fashion houses and beauty parlors of the city. Their spatial practices comprise their enjoyment of freedom in work place and particularly in public space, their psychological mapping of fear and danger, their experience of harassment in public space and protective use of space in Dhaka. Briefly, the study has attempted to pinpoint how the city of Dhaka has become a space of freedom and movement and simultaneously a space of danger for women using the public space every day. Harvey’s ‘Spatial practices and social meanings to space’, Lefebvre’s ‘Production of space and Tonkiss’s ‘Geography of gender’ have been applied to make the study theoretically sound.. Mixed method strategy has been applied to conduct the study majorly followed by survey and supplemented by case studies. This combination of methods has facilitated the respondents to enrich the findings of the study with their straightforward responses and exclusive social reality at the same time. There is a blend of South Dhaka and North Dhaka, affluent area and ordinary area to represent the reality in the city. Descriptive analysis with Statistical program and narrative analysis of the subjects’ stories have been used for the analysis of collected data. The study has revealed that new urban space of Dhaka has been produced by the rise of shopping malls, fashion houses and beauty parlors, increasing consumerism, increasing number of women working in these sectors and their visible presence in the public space of the city. Their employment and empowerment with new service sectors has led to weakening men’s traditional masculinity. The men attempt to show down their masculinity in a new form by harassing women differentlyin public space of Dhaka Women’s socialization as a girl and previous bitter experiences in the city has produced women’s fear of space as well as protective use of space. Briefly, the study argues that the new urban space of Dhaka city has produced working women’s maps of danger and margins of freedom at the same time.