Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1992

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Sociology

Major Professor

Samuel E. Wallace

Abstract

The design and construction of housing, transportation, and leisure activity resources are based on traditional assumptions of gender and household composition. Architects and planners rely on a nuclear family model that excludes single women. Single women select housing, transportation, and leisure activities in an environment not built for their lifesyles. Single women in Knoxville were interviewed on two main topics: their interactions with the environment and their experiences as single. First, single women's perceptions, selections, and uses of available housing, transportation, and leisure activity resources were examined. Single women's perceptions of the environment shape their movements. Women subjectively define affordability, convenience, appearance, and safety considerations according to their social position, financial situation, and socialized expectations of a single woman's behavior. Single women's considerations generally have a homogeneous impact on their selection and use of housing, transportation, and leisure resources. Affordability and safety are the two most overriding considerations affecting women's movements. Most single women have low incomes and are preoccupied with safety; they seek affordable, secure environments. Although single women are under economic strain, most would spend a greater proportion of their disposable income for secure housing, safe transportation, and protected leisure activities to satisfy their safety requirements. Second, on singlehood, single women report feeling socially out-of-place and vulnerable because they are not part of a couple and are often alone. For support, singles typically associate with each other, sometimes in formal organizations, sometimes informally. Single women believe their lives are different from both single men and married women because of their lower incomes, higher fear, and increased social displacement. Safety emerges as the overriding consideration influencing women's decisions on housing, transportation, and leisure activities. From the media and familial and other social relationships, women develop a socialized fear perspective (SFP) that affects their behavior. This perspective is shaped by social myths on the vulnerability of single women; consequently, women often have unduly heightened fear. The SFP serves as a social control mechanism that circumscribes women's movements. Because of their SFP, single women perceive environmental options differently than single men or married people, and this perceptual distinction, along with fewer financial resources, reduces the environmental choices available to single women. As the length of time unmarried increases, women's fear typically decreases, slightly enlarging the housing, transportation, and leisure activity choices they consider possible. Singlehood is a process in which women adapt to their deviant status and learn to navigate alone in space. The available housing, transportation, and leisure activity resources are products of a society in which women have negligible input. The environment also produces behaviors by presenting particular models for housing, transportation, and leisure activities. Social institutions must recognize the growing numbers of singles and present socially acceptable, affordable, housing, transportation, and leisure activity resources.

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