Finding a ‘place’ in public food matters: Gendered urban food initiatives shaping women’s right to the city

Abstract

This article investigates the potential of urban food initiatives in providing an opportunity for the advancement of women’s right to the city. It does so by retracing the historically rooted patriarchal division of care labour, which includes the so-called ‘foodwork’, that has long confined women to peripheries and private spaces by tying their ‘place’ in cities and societies to private care practices. Yet, in recent years food matters have ‘gone public’ and become recognised as urban issues that should be tackled collectively in a public way. Through interviews with three alternative food networks in Milan, this article shows that the feminisation of care and foodwork has not been disrupted when these matters have become considered as public and collective urban issues. Still, the persistence of these gendered roles in some cases provides women with a chance to advance their right to the city, by facilitating appropriation of urban space and participation in decision-making through urban food initiatives. The article discusses the tensions between the opportunity to ‘find a place’ in public food matters for women facing social fragility and the persistence of patriarchal understandings of gender roles that grant such place.