What does it mean to be a woman in the city?
By: Tanya Efremenko
Tags: Mobility, Urban Planning, Inclusion, Urbanism, Women

What does it mean to be a woman in the city?

“The measure of any great civilization is its cities and a measure of a city’s greatness is to be found in the quality of its public spaces, its parks and squares.” -John Ruskin Tanya Efremenko Mar 4, 2020·5 min read

It’s a dark winter morning and I am on my way to work. I get off the bus, and start walking towards the building shielded by the morning fog. Few meters ahead, I see a group of men in orange jackets, assuming they are construction workers. That’s right, I see the construction site on the right. On the left I see a crosswalk, so I cross the road and continue walking straight. Do you know why I crossed the road? No, my workplace was not on that side of the street, I had no need to change the direction. I did it so unconsciously, though very determined. I crossed because I saw those men and it was dark on the street. There were no signs of them being rude or potentially harmful to me, but it immediately signaled in my head that it is safer to avoid walking next to them. I did it as naturally as I would probably do if I saw a big hole on my way.

It is how social behavior is being changed in the urban environment. It is also a question of my identity — how it is encouraged to shift and adapt to the external factors (in my case — a group of men and the lack of street lighting). One could undoubtedly argue that anyone regardless of gender is prone to experience certain issues regarding security in public space. But here I’m talking, firstly, from my own experience, and second, it has been proved that women have been widely ‘enjoying’ urban discrimination due to path dependency of how our cities and public spaces have been planned and designed.

After all, what is public space? Space is a physical unit in the city, while a public space is a place that is generally open and accessible to people. Thus, public space is a space for representation in our cities. It belongs to the public. Public includes everyone. It’s as easy as that. However, in practice it seems to be much more complicated. Historically, cities have been designed and engineered by men. It is no doubt, they were considering their needs and their perceptions of comfort, accessibility and livability. They were mistakenly assuming that all people have similar needs as them. In the end, we are all human beings and we all sit and walk more or less in the same way. They did not or did not want to think about physiological, psychological, cultural and socially constructed aspects of diverse groups in the cities.

Besides, women were always associated with the private domain — home. They were supposed to be queens of the cosy corners where men could always come back to. In turn, public spaces were mainly associated with social life occupied and used by men, either to enjoy time with friends after a long day at work, or to protest and form political ideas on the streets. Nowadays, we need public spaces to satisfy our public needs. As people have different essential needs, they need to be equally satisfied in the urban areas.

Mobility. There are different patterns of how men and women move in the urban areas. Men report to use cars or public transport fewer times a day — normally going to and back from work. Women’s mobility patterns are more sophisticated including several transit points daily, as well as much more extensive and frequent use of sidewalks, city infrastructure (utilizing benches for intermittent stops during the route, etc.), public transport and cars. Transit routes have to be thought through considering connections between different modes of transport, especially between kindergartens, schools, markets and residential areas, as well as city infrastructure between them. Infrastructure. Benches. They are important for having an opportunity to make a stop while moving from point A to point B. They are also important in the public place for everyone, especially women and the elderly, to have an opportunity to rest and socialize. Second, a lot of people and planners underestimate the importance of the toilets in cities. Physiologically women need to use bathrooms more often than men, however, it has been a widely ignored fact in urban planning. Besides, the design of public toilets have to consider such details as having wide enough entrance for strollers. Street lighting is undoubtedly important for security and convenience reasons. These are only some of things that have to be taken into consideration. Playing. Entertainment is an essential element in urban planning. Fun should be accessible to all, right? Otherwise, it’s no fun. When we look at playgrounds — do they create equal opportunities for joy for everyone? There have been several studies done on segregation patterns in playgrounds, where boys use the space more intensively, while girls after the age of nine gradually stop using playgrounds. Sometimes, the reason could be a soccer field in the middle of the playground or the park, which eliminates other accessible options in the area. Instead, we need to refocus the dominance to a greater variety of paths inside of the areas, as well as diversity of outdoor facilities. In Umea, Sweden, the organization “You skate girl!” encourages female skaters to use the skating park with the help of design, such as installing lights next to the park, building city tunnels and passageways with a view to safety and accessibility.

For a great majority of women homes are often being associated with physical and emotional boundaries. Sure, as I said before, women have been traditionally the keepers of the private space, but it does not mean that women always have freedom within. During my own fieldworks I discovered that many of those women seek their freedom outside. Women search for personal liberation in cities. But if we, as planners and placemakers, do not understand this need, how can we claim to create better places for everyone?