Space, Gender and Identity Construction in Student Hostels

Social spaces have become crucial avenues of gender identity construction and reconstruction. Research indicates that physical space provides contexts within which social order is constructed and reproduced reflecting ideals and realities about relationships between women and men. This study notes that increased access to higher education has created such accommodation spaces through which the latter social relations generate new identities for female and male students as they adjust to new institutional rules, norms and expectations. The study notes that the 1990 institutional reforms at Makerere University immensely contributed to higher numbers of students particularly females at the university. Without similar increase in student accommodation structures by the University, there was excessive demand for accommodation space unlike the previous decades ¿ thus mushrooming of hostels that offer off campus accommodation.