When novelist Gertrude Stein wrote, "there's no there, there" she might have been thinking of Woodbridge, Ont. At least, that seems to be York Environmental Studies student Eva Musso's conclusion after doing in-depth interviews with some of the young women living there.

    "Lots of research has been done on the plight of married women in the suburbs, but there aren't any studies of single women around the age of 20," says Musso.

    Musso charted the feelings and revelations about life in the 'burbs through conversations with a number of women for her honours thesis. The results were surprising. Life in Woodbridge, it seems, is more akin to living in the Dark Ages, than modern times. "Young, single women today still feel trapped in their homes by strict parental rules, their culture and the watchful eyes of neighbours," says Musso.

    The women she interviewed said they felt limited by the social and physical strictures of their surroundings. (Musso maintains both cultural and religious mores surrounding the role of women tend to be rigid and traditional among Italian parents.) "These women felt there was too much emphasis placed by their parents on the opinion of neighbours and on conventional notions regarding women, gender and sexuality."

    Among the bigger difficulties of the suburban life-style for her group was an ignorance of young women's needs, a lack of access to facilities, little opportunity for career employment, segregation by wealth and ethnicity, expensive housing and reliance on the car. The result? "All the women I talked to said they'd be moving out in the near future."

Illustration: Tracy Cox