The Right to the Gendered City: Different Formations of Belonging in Everyday Life

The purpose of this paper is to discuss new forms of citizenship in globalized cities from a gendered and feminist perspective and to connect them to women's everyday life and to cities' planning and governance. In doing so, I challenge the Lefebvrian notion of the right to the city using a gendered and feminist critique by arguing that the identification of the right to the city lacks sufficient attention to patriarchal power relations which are ethnic, cultural and gender-related and as such it doesn't produce a practical standpoint. I will develop this critique by looking at women's everyday experiences and their reflections regarding their sense of comfort, belonging and commitment to the city they live in.