The City Is Not Designed for Women

As stated by author and feminist-issues researcher Caroline Criado-Perez, the world is designed mostly by men with mostly other men in mind. The gender-based gap in data has been known to exist for a long time, and male-biased data has affected the living experiences of women in oft-realized but nether-talked ways. This holds for our built environments as well, where women are often left disadvantaged by existing infrastructures.

According to the American Institute of Architects, currently almost half of the students in architectural programs in the US are women, though they make up only 17% of registered architects. This is notable because men and women interact with their environment in different ways, and therefore design spaces with different needs in mind. The United Nations Office for Project Service (UNOPS) states that gender-blind infrastructure “fails to consider the different roles, responsibilities and particular needs of women, men, girls and boys in a specific context and how this affects their ability to use or access infrastructure.” An example of gendered mobility patterns is that the majority of car drivers tend to be men, while women are more likely to walk or take public transport (Lambrou and Piana, 2006; Hamilton et. al., 2005). Men also tend to commute longer distances, whereas women tend to make shorter, multi-purpose journeys. Additionally, according to the Women’s Cycling Project,  women are statistically less likely to engage in risky road behavior, suggesting that adequate bike lanes, separated off-road cycling paths, wider lanes on roads, good connectivity and greater availability of direct routes are required to increase female cycling participation.

This male domination in urban planning and contributions is reflected in a built environment that often does not meet the needs of women. As an example, Bloomberg CityLab reported that in Frankfurt it is common for the narrowness of pavements over its river crossings to disadvantage certain pedestrians. In a risky maneuver, caregivers with strollers are forced to momentarily step onto the roadway, which is itself two lanes wide. A similar example of gender-blind urban infrastructure is snow ploughing. Stockholm, a highly snow-prone city, typically targeted roads for snow-removal rather than entries to day cares, footpaths, and cycle paths, which are more often used by women and children. In Oslo, docking stations for bike sharing were initially placed only in central areas with offices dominated by men. In Bangladesh, the 1991 cyclone and floods resulted in a death toll among women that was five times higher than men. A major contributor to this disturbing statistic was the gender-blind design of cyclone shelters which lacked sanitation facilitations, ramps for heavily pregnant women and private spaces for lactating mothers. Due to the cramped conditions, sexual harassment occurred, and women were further discouraged from using such facilities (Sharmin & Islam, 2013).

Other urban handicaps include poorly lit streets and public spaces, lack of nursing areas, domination of sports playgrounds aimed at boys, and infrequent public transport routes to and from suburbs. Some tumbledown effects of these subtle marginalizations in the built environment include reduced participation in urban lives, greater time-use on everyday activities, and decreased sense of safety for women, all of which decrease women’s well-being.

Many European cities including Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam are implementing solutions towards more inclusive mobility which is key to a more sustainable green infrastructure. As a solution to the above mentioned problem, officials in Stockholm realized that it’s easier to drive through three inches of snow than push a buggy through it, and now prioritize snow-ploughing pavements. In Oslo, a simple solution to increase uptake of bike share programs by women turned out to be targeted, peripheral locations for the bike stations, which required gender-sensitive demographic information. As found in another CityLab report, well-lit pedestrian paths have been built in Nantes (France), and Vienna retimed traffic lights to give families with children more time to cross, and removed sidewalk barriers to improve accessibility for older people, wheelchair users, and parents with strollers. Off-peak train and bus schedules are being explored by some cities to accommodate non-professional uses.

We need to make urban settings work for people other than ‘standard’ able-bodied men. Gender-disaggregated data collection can contribute towards this, as can higher representation of women in urban leadership and management capacities. These can further be strengthened by gender-sensitive budgeting for public investments, as seen in a number of regions including Lyon (France), Andalusia (Spain), Iceland and Australia. If sought, solutions towards equitable urban policymaking are ample. It is high time to go beyond the timeworn rhetoric of diversity in every sphere of decision-making, including urban planning, and limit barriers while make the living environment truly inclusive of all.