Marsha Ritsdorph

Marsha Ritzdorf (1946–1998) was a scholar, teacher, and trailblazer whose work fundamentally expanded how the planning profession understands zoning, gender, race, and family life. As a planning professor at both the University of Oregon and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Ritzdorf helped bring women’s experiences and social equity into a field that had long treated them as peripheral—if it acknowledged them at all.

Ritzdorf entered the planning profession in 1972 and academia shortly thereafter, in 1975. From the very beginning of her career, she focused on women’s issues in planning at a time when such concerns were often dismissed as “soft” or irrelevant. Her scholarship challenged that assumption head-on. Through research and authorship addressing race, gender, families, and the built environment, she demonstrated that planning policies were not neutral—and that zoning, in particular, had profound and often harmful consequences for women and marginalized communities.

Her most influential work, A Feminist Analysis of Gender and Residential Zoning in the United States, made a groundbreaking case that zoning regulations directly shape women’s daily lives. Ritzdorf exposed how restrictive definitions of “family,” bans on mixed-use development, and limits on home-based or nearby child care constrained women’s economic opportunities and reinforced gender inequality. These insights opened an entirely new line of inquiry in planning scholarship. As colleague June Manning Thomas later observed, Ritzdorf “saw things about zoning…that no one else had written about before.”

That perspective was shaped in part by Ritzdorf’s own path. She sometimes described herself as a “late” Ph.D. student, having first worked as a practicing planner before pursuing her doctorate. The experience grounded her academic work in real-world consequences and helped her bridge theory and practice with unusual clarity.

Ritzdorf’s influence extended far beyond her writing. Known for her generosity as a mentor, she provided sustained encouragement to women scholars whose interests fell outside traditional planning boundaries. According to Patricia Baron Pollak and June Manning Thomas, her “personal attention, guidance, and mentoring gave her women colleagues the strength and courage to pursue a wide range of topics not previously considered acceptable.” To many students and peers, she was not just a respected academic, but a heroine.

Her contributions were widely recognized. In 1990, she received the American Planning Association’s Diana Donald Award for advancing women in the planning profession. In 1997, she was honored with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning’s Margarita McCoy Award for her impact on women in planning education.

Following her death in 1998, ACSP established the Marsha Ritzdorf Award for Best Student Work on Diversity, Social Justice, and the Role of Women in Planning, ensuring her legacy endures. The award recognizes scholarship dedicated to making communities better for women, people of color, and the disadvantaged—a mission that defined Ritzdorf’s life and work.