Addressing the gender bias built into our cities has never been more important

As built environment professionals, we play an important role in shaping the cities of tomorrow. This is, and always will be, a dynamic process – we are wired to keep thinking about the next urban innovation. However, the key to designing for the future is not just about creating shiny new places – it is about acknowledging and addressing deep-rooted problems which are embedded in our existing places and communities.

An underappreciated example of this is in the gender bias which is built into our cities. The way we plan and design cities has traditionally underserved, even ignored women’s needs, in ways we may not think about, but are evident once we do. Poorly lit streets and spaces leave women feeling vulnerable and force them to take long detours, public transport systems are designed to serve commuters but feel unsafe for women, and public spaces often don’t cater to how women and girls like to socialise.

As architects, urban designers and planners, we have the opportunity to design better for women’s needs every time we start a new project or initiative. Arup, along with the United Nations Development Programme and University of Liverpool, has explored how we can do this better in our latest report ‘Cities Alive: Designing cities that work for women’. The report is a call to action and highlights the positive results we could achieve by being more conscious and sensitive to the needs of all.

There are steps we can take to make change happen, but it is impossible to succeed without genuine participation. Women must be involved at all stages of planning including taking the lead in advocating for and making these changes. Women remain greatly underrepresented in key decision-making positions in government and industry. More leadership roles and positions of power must include women – and female leadership within the planning and design industry is necessary to help focus the right level of attention on the issues women face.

In our day-to-day work on projects, we must also bring greater gender responsiveness. Real progress, and real inclusivity, will only come through incorporating the views and needs of different groups at all stages. Strikingly, 37% of the report’s female survey respondents say they would be unlikely to report public harassment. This shows us that women do not feel comfortable speaking up about issues they face – it is therefore important to create an environment where women feel encouraged to speak up and are able to do so, and trust that their views will be taken seriously by designers, planners, and policymakers.

As we make the effort to bring more female voices into the early planning stages of projects, we must ensure they stay there. It is not enough to pay lip service to inclusive design at the start of a project. We should be using quantifiable indicators to measure and monitor the success of gender-responsive interventions, seek insights from the experiences of specific user groups, and gather feedback so we can continually improve.

The primary aim of the report is to provide impetus to city designers and planners to promote real change in the way we approach our work. It provides powerful evidence of where our places are failing half our population, and tangible strategies on how we can do better.

Rebuilding our cities is not just about replacing the old with the new – it is about overcoming ingrained patterns that prevent us from being truly inclusive. Urban planners and designers have the power to do this every time we start a new project and to influence decision makers to do the same. The first step is to stop, think and ask.