Creating and challenging gendered spatialities: how space affects gender contracts

摘要

This paper discusses the spatial component of gender relations through an analysis of contemporary gender relations in rural Sweden. We use the concept of local gender contracts, analysing their nature and transformation in various contexts. When gendered practices are analysed at local level, negotiations about the gendering of everyday practices become visible. The focus is on analysing the (informal) strategies in such negotiations and how people act and react in relation to them. The results point to two alternative strategies. Women and men either adapt to the mainstream gender contract of the region, and adhere to it regardless of changes in society's demands, or challenge existing norms, practices and representations in their public and/or private lives, according to changes in local conditions. The local context is thus active in reproducing and maintaining, as well as transforming, gender relations and thereby reshaping the gender contract.