Curator and MFA CP Alum Ashley Molese will host a presentation and workshop with New York-based architect and urban designer Lizzie MacWillie. In 1980, urban historian Dolores Hayden published an essay called “What Would a Non-Sexist City Be Like?” In it, she describes the friction that occurred as women increasingly entered the professional workforce despite the fact that American homes and neighborhoods were designed to confine women to the domestic realm. Working with rural and urban community organizers and neighborhood leaders across Texas, most if not all who have been women of color, led MacWillie to revisit the idea of the non-sexist city. Women are not only responsible for the care of their home, but their care of their entire communities. This project asked folks to consider what a non-sexist city might look like today by recognizing that a truly equitable and non-sexist city cannot happen without economic and social transformation that addresses gender, race, class, and more. Imagining an intersectional approach to design could yield a radical rethinking of the home, the neighborhood, the city and the soft and hard infrastructure that support it all.
