An essential collection of perspectives on urban topics?where women have much to contribute As someone who writes about cities, I end up reading a lot of books about how the places we live have formed, grown, and changed. But it wasn?t until I was four-fifths of the way through a stack on my nightstand when I realized something else about the books I read about cities?nearly all of them are written by men.
After writing a story about how urbanist discourse often shuts out women?s voices, both in print and online, I put out the call for books about cities written by people who do not identify as men. The list you see here is not meant to be a definitive or complete list of the contributions of women urbanists, but a collection of essential perspectives on topics where women have much to contribute. If you?re looking for a refreshing take on the way gender shapes our urban neighborhoods, or a comprehensive history of how inequity is engrained in our transportation systems, you?ll find it here. Enjoy, peruse our list of 101 books about cities for more women-authored titles, and share your own selections in the comments.
Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism by Rebecca Solnit
Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places by Sharon Zukin
How Women Saved the City by Daphne Spain
Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London by Lauren Elkin
Radical Suburbs: Experimental Living on the Fringes of t...