Laura Del Vecchio
Andy Smith @ stock.adobe.com
Cities Designed For and By Men
The "standard person" is a man, more precisely, a young caucasian male; everything divergent is considered atypical. On the same note, most cities and urban areas are male-oriented, with urban planning designs that encompass the habits and interests of the men.
In terms of urban mobility, modes of transportation generally subside only the means for men to move about. For instance, men usually take longer and more consistent journeys, generally by car, and even though women perform several trips too, although principally by non-motorized modes or by foot, metropolises worldwide are planned to primarily focus on the journey of motorized vehicles. This fact subsequently disfavors certain needs and demands for urban planning, leaving other individuals but men out of the equation.
Poverty itself is also gendered; men and women experience it differently, so the effectiveness of any equality measure is directly tied to how public authorities and administrators ponder their actions over gender concerns. In addition, it is common to feel unsafe in public areas, especially for vulnerable groups, including women, trans people, disabled people, and racial minorities. As for the female population, the lack of safety comes at a high cost to an individual's enjoyment, where the fear related to sexual and physical violence has a substantial impact on individual commuting decisions.
Gender Mainstreaming: An Overview
As a compelling program to reduce inequalities in urban environments, the employment of Gender Mainstreaming approaches aims to treat gender as a transversal subject that impacts all sectors.
Put it plainly, Gender Mainstreaming consists of a set of policies that put into practice diverse modes of transportation that includes all individuals based on their mobility needs and demands. With the increased number of women acceding to new job positions, urban planners were forced to reconsider their strategies and include women's needs into their agenda.
For example, women-only sections of public transportation that include entire underground metro cars are creating a safe and protected space for women to move about the city. This initiative has been proven to reduce sexual assault towards women in several cities, including Mexico City and Dubai. The deployment of such a measure requires clear signage and also an increased number of security guards to ensure that only women enter the partitioned section.
However, a collateral effect was noted: although the violence towards women decreased, the violence among men increased. It leads to an obvious resolution: the real problem lies with the violent behavior of men, with these issues manifesting themselves regardless of the gender of the victim.
To build a welcoming place where everyone feels safe and entitled to utilize all public facilities, city planners must think about structure and design but also work on overall behavior change through an improved and inclusive education system to move towards egalitarian interpersonal relationships. With proactive regulations intended to decrease gender inequality, one can imagine a place where everyone feels empowered in their daily routines.
The presence of gatekeepers preventing particular individuals from entering the segregated wagon could help enforce Gender Mainstreaming but equally also cause discomfort. Would trans women with low passability be allowed inside? What about a trans man? The trans population is subject to daily violence too, both physical and psychological, so if the intuition of the wagon is to create a safe space, it should be seamlessly open to these populations as well.
Another point to take into consideration would be the non-mandatory usage of these sections. What would happen if a woman was assaulted when riding in a mixed subway car? Would that open up the possibility of victim-blaming — as if by actively choosing not to make use of the female-only wagon, the woman was also accepting the violence itself?
Society would need to be careful in determining which areas should be partitioned by gender. Some authoritarian countries could use this initiative as a justification to separate men and women in other aspects of society as well. Solutions such as Gender Mainstreaming should always remain optional, and the primary focus should be placed on behavioral improvement and not segregation.
Also, the use of Real-time Mapping updated with data of recent sexual harassment cases could allow women and other gender identities to identify areas where sexual abuses tend to occur. When combined with Machine Learning Data Analytics, It could predict, assess, and detect future crimes, similar to how other data platforms predict and prevent crimes successfully.
Most non-male identities feel uncomfortable taking public transport alone at night, and many of them have already experienced distinct street harassment situations. This digital solution may empower diversified gender identities to call out their endangered and unfair position in patriarchal societies. By geographically identifying where more incidents take place, authorities could target zones and areas that need increased surveillance. Once the accumulated data reaches local governments, it could raise concerns regarding the freedom of citizens to use public space, which should be a given right to any citizen in the first place.