Pickerill, Jenny. “Who Builds The Houses?.” Communities 162 (2014): 20. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

In Jenny Pickerill’s article, she studies men and women involvement in the building of eco-communities and the struggle to overcome gender inequality. Pickerill explains how she has been researching and working with eco-communities for the last decade, in her studies she focuses on how houses in eco-communities get built, the decisions, choices, and dilemmas involved, the costs, the compromises, and how the completed house is lived in, works, and functions. Despite the feminist movement in the last century, eco-communities still experience gender inequality when it comes to building and living. Throughout her travels, Pickerill explains how females in general are socially stereotyped to primarily have and raise a family, in doing so they are expected to spend their time doing domestic chores. Pickerill then translates this into female eco-builders who are viewed as being weaker than men therefore they cannot be good builders. She rebuttals this by stating that building doesn’t require strength alone but creativity and communication; things men and women can do. Jenny Pickerrill concludes her argument by stating that we need to embrace gender as a form of diversity, but not as a division of labor. We need to create space for women to build and to acknowledge the work that many women already do on build sites. To women’s contributions visible and valued.

I chose this source because it relates to the topic of this unit on gender equality. This source can be compared to the issues brought up in LGBT equality.