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Gender-focussed design and planning: building an inclusive public realm

The death of Sarah Everard created a watershed moment for the right of women and girls to safely access the public realm.

As an outpouring of testimony in the wake of this tragic murder underlined, our public spaces do not sufficiently prioritise the wellbeing and safety of women. The built environment sector cannot fix the endemic cultural issues of intimidation and harassment faced by women. Yet, it has a part to play in improving safety, and perceptions of safety, to help women fully engage with our public spaces.

In a 2019 lecture ‘The Feminist City’, Dr Ellie Cosgrave, associate professor of urban innovation at University College London, said: “It is the multiple and constant threats that young women experience that tell us that the city is not a place where they belong.”

Inequality is spatially reinforced by design, from our systems all the way down to individual public spaces.

For women to genuinely achieve gender equality, and realise their right to the city, they must be empowered to take part in urban life and its governance free from fear of intimidation and violence.

Violence can affect women and girls in the workplace, at school, in streets, parks, busy precincts, and on public transport, and limit their opportunities for employment and education.

Women must no longer be seen as passive victims. It is essential that they also play an equal part in designing the infrastructure that shapes everyday life.

The Government acknowledges that there is a problem around how women currently interact with the public realm. In its recently published Build Back Better – High Streets Strategy it was announced that the third round of Safer Streets Funding aims to increase and improve the safety of public spaces for all, with a focus on improving the safety of women and girls and improving women and girls’ ‘feeling of safety’ in these spaces.

The built environment sector has a key role to play in improving the safety and wellbeing of women - from transportation and infrastructure, to creating spaces where women feel able to fully access all spheres of public life. By creating spaces which are safe for women we are improving inclusivity for all.

The lack of women in senior roles in the sector must change and the industry must work hard to address the balance. Until there is greater representation of women at the top, and in more roles across the sector, it is crucial that their voices are heard through consultation and the use of sex disaggregated data to inform decision making.

A focus on design and development with women’s safety at the heart of decision making should be prioritised alongside other areas of inclusivity, and sustainability, as a key aspect of building back better.

Issues in urban design and planning 

Designing safe public spaces for women is not a new issue. Frustratingly, for some built environment professionals this is an area which has been debated for decades. And although design solutions were identified long ago to improve safety and inclusivity, little has been done to really address the core problems. Sue Morgan, a landscape architect and executive director of the UK Design Council argues that, “[this] is just a self-perpetuating systemic issue. The overarching context is that we’re all angry that we are still having to have these same conversations.” ^[1]

In the 1980s a coalition of British feminist planners, architects and urban designers came together as ‘The Women’s Design Service’ to research and lobby for improving the UK’s built environment for women. However, a lack of funding and political will meant that little was done at the time and over the following years to address some of the issues raised.

There is hope that the strength of feeling and resultant anger triggered by the death of Sarah Everard should provide impetus to the Government and those in the built environment sector to finally make meaningful changes.^[2]

There is much that planners and urban designers can do to improve safety and perceptions of danger when accessing public spaces, particularly in town centres. Far more needs to be done to refocus urban priorities to centre female concerns.

In her book ‘Invisible Women’ Caroline Criado Perez argues that historically, data gathering and decision making has been ostensibly ‘gender neutral’ but in reality this has led to urban design centering male needs as the default.

There are many issues in our urban spaces which create barriers to usage for women and girls. The underfunding and degradation of civic spaces, such as parks, sends an insidious message of community neglect, turning areas into threatening no-go zones.  A 2008 study in the Netherlands ^[3] found a clear link of how people’s behaviour is dramatically influenced by the quality of their streets. In areas where there was graffiti, litter and broken windows, anti-social behaviour increased.

The ongoing struggles of our high streets is compounding this problem with an average of 1 in 6 units vacant, often clustered together in more peripheral locations of town centres ^[4]. This creates ‘ghost towns’ with unlit shop fronts, dark doorways and alleys where people are afraid to go out. Anti-social behaviour then becomes rife and reinforces fear of public spaces.

Whilst the benefits of natural surveillance are widely known. It is fundamental that it must be factored into all urban architecture, street planning and landscaping. Hidden spaces, underpasses and isolated parking areas create situations of vulnerability. In addition, consideration also needs to be given to how people use the space. Women feel safest in ‘activated spaces’ which are well-used, but not dominated by static groups, because these tend to be male. Therefore considerations such as the use of benches need to be balanced as they encourage dwell time within centres but can have significant impact as they can encourage groups to loiter.

While there is agreement that the principles of Secure by Design lessen crime and the fear of crime when implemented well, there can also be unintended consequences which can impact specifically on the safety of women which need to be addressed.

A key problem is that typical design features intended to improve safety and prevent crime can backfire. For example, designs which improve lighting can introduce bright floodlights that also create pockets of darkness. Symbolic barriers like hedges and walls may deter burglars, but they also limit visibility and offer spaces that can be perceived as places for a potential attacker to hide.

It is clear when considering inclusive design that we have to ask whether our existing design vocabulary can speak to the real and perceived systemic and experienced safety concerns of women in the public realm.

The end of lockdown and the reawakening of the high street, coupled with a need to reimagine their usage, provides an opportunity to redefine space to create a sense of community ownership with a focus on women which can have a beneficial impact for all members of society.

If we look at the example of RV Burgess Park in Toronto - an area where more than 30,000 people live in 34 high-rise buildings compactly organised into an area of approximately two square kilometres. The area had a high crime rate and a lack of community cohesion. Ownership of space was given to a women’s community group who brought a transformation to the area. With activities including a weekly bazaar, selling goods made by local people, children’s groups and now English lessons for the largely immigrant population. The project has facilitated an active role for women and local residents in community life in every sense of the word ^[5].

It has been mooted that in order to effect a renaissance of the high street there is need for more effective community involvement. Giving ownership of space to women and community groups provides an opportunity to reset thinking and create new behaviours. It also serves to bring life to town centres and provide women a greater sense of ownership of the space.

It is important to note that it is not just designers who have a responsibility to make our urban spaces more inclusive. Planners have a key role to play when making decisions which have the potential to impact on the safety and perceived safety of women. Dr Ellie Cosgrave ^[6] argues that the “default male model” of planning rarely, if ever, considers the needs of women.

It is key to bear in mind, according to Criado Perez that “Equality doesn’t mean treating women like men” and that we need to avoid falling in to that bias ^[7].

While safety is referenced in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). When development schemes are drawn up it is often not a priority, nor is it addressed properly through the planning process. It is questionable as to whether it is fully understood from a gender perspective and scrutinised fully in the planning process.^[8]

Whilst it is clear that urban design and planning can do much to improve the safety perceptions of women and encourage greater participation in the public realm, it is important to note that it is not a panacea. Reducing deep-rooted violence requires massive societal change.

However, we must recognise the opportunity that exists for the built environment sector to play a role in improving inclusivity for all in our public spaces.

Designing inclusive spaces

Decision makers should take women’s security and wellbeing into account as a matter of course and, as campaigners argue, women must play an equal part in designing the infrastructure that shapes everyday life.^[9]

This approach has been successfully implemented in Vienna. Since the early 1990s all government agencies have been required to introduce strategic plans and initiatives to support the explicit inclusion of needs, concerns, and lived experiences of women to shape more equitable policy outcomes for all residents.

The city is widely held up as an example of how design can centre the needs of women. The city has carried out more than 60 projects which have used a ‘gender mainstreaming’ model to design equitable spaces. These diverse projects have led to new street lighting and more seating in addition to wider footpaths. A project in urban parks added more footpaths and space for activities other than football and has led to more girls using the spaces (previous research had found that after the age of nine, girls barely used parks). This gender mainstreaming model has been adopted by several European cities including Berlin, Barcelona, Stockholm and Copenhagen.

When analysing public spaces and the barriers and enablers for women to engage in this space, planning and design must take an intersectional approach. This approach recognises that women’s identities are made up of multiple interrelated attributes (such as race, gender identity, disability, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and socio-economic status) and that when these intersect, women can experience compounding cultural and structural oppression, discrimination, violence and disadvantage. All of these factors should be considered to ensure women have equitable access to and use of the public realm.

In order to create public spaces that are truly inclusive, built environment practitioners must engage with women at all aspects of the design and development process.

Best practice, consulting with women and understanding the needs of vulnerable groups and implementing Secure by Design principles will create safe, inclusive spaces for all. It should be emphasised that good design is good design and works for all groups irrespective of gender or other vulnerabilities.

Need for more women in the sector 

Although it is key that women are consulted and their lived experiences central to the planning process, it is also of fundamental importance that women are employed at every stage of the design, planning and development process.

While it is undeniably an issue of concern that there is a lack of women, particularly in leadership positions in the built environment sector, this is improving, albeit slowly, with organisations like Turley implementing a range of measures to improve diversity across specialisms and in senior leadership. See our gender pay gap report.

However, a key issue highlighted by urban designer Hilary Satchwell is that although there is a good and improving representation of women in senior positions in areas such as architecture, planning and urban design who are adept at considering wider issues and needs, this gender diversity does not extend to fields such as quantity surveyors, developers and housebuilders ^[10].

This creates a number of problems as these are often the client and end decision makers on projects and their lack of recognition of the differing experiences of women can lead to features which would improve the inclusivity and safety of spaces being viewed as an unnecessary expense.

In order to improve inclusivity in the public realm the onus is for all built environment sector professionals to fully understand the impact of the historical reliance on man as the ‘default’. 

It is also fundamental that women are promoted into leadership positions across the industry, and there should be wider consultation with women and girls. It is only through these measures that transformational change will happen. 

Conclusion

In order to create public spaces that are safe and inclusive for women, and accessible for all members of the community, it is fundamental that women are central to all aspects of the design, planning and development process. Both professionally and through consultation, a broader societal commitment to gender equity is vital to ensure that it is embedded across all processes and policies. There is a need to ensure that women are in leadership positions so that they are able to bring their voices, perspectives and experiences to the table.

The built environment sector is making great strides in increasing diversity in the workforce. However, there is still some way to go at the most senior levels, and in certain roles such as quantity surveyors and developers, and action must be taken in the long term to recruit and promote women.^[11]

Until this can be fully addressed, women must be involved at every stage of the planning and development process through consultation. There should also be a focus on the sex-disaggregation of data to ensure specific gender differences in behaviour and needs are fully understood.

However, it is important to note that while, undeniably, the industry has an important role to play in creating safer, more inclusive spaces, the societal problems brought into sharp focus by the murder of Sarah Everard will not be fully addressed through urban design and planning. Violence against women and girls will not end without significant structural and institutional change.

In our next article we will examine the barriers to gender inclusivity in approaches to developing healthy cities and look at what can be done to address this.

3 August 2021

[1] https://qz.com/1985650/sarah-everard-design-strategies-to-make-streets-safer-for-women/
[2] ibid
[3] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16096-graffiti-and-litter-lead-to-more-street-crime/
[4] https://brc.org.uk/news/corporate-affairs/empty-shop-fronts-continue-to-soar/
[5] https://citiesofmigration.ca/good-ideas-in-integration/municipal/
[6] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-to-make-the-streets-safer-plan-them-with-women-in-mind-88rdwr6t0
[7] https://www.dezeen.com/2020/03/10/caroline-criado-perez-urban-planning-is-really-very-biased-against-women/
[8] https://www.propertyweek.com/legal-and-professional/sarah-everard-murder-sparks-call-for-safety-focused-urban-design/5113438.article?utm_medium=email
[9] https://twitter.com/elliecosgrave/status/1082026712043585538?s=20
[10]​​​​ https://www.propertyweek.com/legal-and-professional/sarah-everard-murder-sparks-call-for-safety-focused-urban-design/5113438.article?utm_medium=email
[11] ibid