The androgynization of the "city of women" and its region

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question: are there any substantial arguments justifying the label given to the city of Łódź as the “city of women”? This seems especially relevant because the term/phrase can be interpreted in at least two ways. First, it may be a statement stressing that the town “belongs” to women and, unlike in a community based on patriarchy, “the second sex” dominates. This line of reasoning raises the question of the grounds (quantitative and/ or qualitative) for asserting women’s preponderance in Łódź. Secondly, the label also allows for advancing a thesis about the “feminine” nature of the city, i.e. the gender of its community empirically identified as female. This paper presents an analysis of both propositions, using the statistical data and the results of empirical sociological research conducted on a representative sample of the broader urban community, that is among the inhabitants of Łódź and the voivodeship (Province), as well as the findings of studies carried out on a random sample of 18,000 students from all primary, middle and secondary schools in the Łódź region (excluding private schools and those managed by foundations or associations). The article is an attempt to respond to the following hypothesis: The “city of women” is not the same concept as a “feminine city”. Łódź is a “women’s town” due to their numerical predominance in the population and because it is women who have accumulated more and better (basic) human capital resources. However, empirically defined gender patterns of the community in the city and the region, i.e. personality orientations and the psychological sex of the inhabitants, together with personality traits revealed in the process of fulfilling social roles, which are of a key importance from the point of view of the cultural models of femininity and masculinity, need not confirm the feminine nature of the city.