Approaching the city from a gender perspective

According to the European Institute for Gender Equality[i], Greece has been consistently ranked last in Europe in terms of gender equality in recent years. Actually, compared to all other countries, it advances at the slowest rate. Nevertheless, according to other surveys (Special Eurobarometer, 2017)[ii], Greek citizens think that gender equality has been achieved to a significant degree in our country and that we are among the higher ranks in Europe in a number of areas. This paradox reveals to us the urgent need for gender equality discussions in Greece today and the need to integrate a feminist perspective into each aspect of our everyday lives and urban development.

A feminist approach to urban design

A city’s public space holds primary importance in shaping the experience of people’s everyday lives. However, contrary to what we may believe, public space is not a neutral field. It is a cultural result that produces and reproduces relationships, hierarchies, and discrimination based on gender as well.

When cities as we know them today were being planned and developed in previous decades, certain “experts” and specialists provided guidelines for urban planning strategies based on their specific experiences and ideas for the city. Most of the ‘experts’ (architects, urban planners, politicians) came from the dominant model of citizenship, that of a healthy, able-bodied, white, cis-straight, middle- or upper-class male. As a result, the urban development policies they suggested and carried out responded to their own experiences, needs, and aspirations, overlooking and even disregarding or devaluing the needs and aspirations of other social groups. According to the World Bank (2020)[iii], contemporary cities are created by men for men, thus significantly restricting women’s access to social and economic growth.

Why do we women have differentiated needs in the city? 

Historically, there has been a dipole. On the one hand, men (the male gender) have been associated with paid labour and the public space outside the home, while women (the female gender) have been associated with the private space, the house, and unpaid care work (childcare, care of elderly family members, domestic care), which remains socially invisible and devalued to this day. Data from the European Union indicates that women in Greece devote almost four times as much time as men to caregiving (European Union, 2018)[iv]. Due to our caring responsibilities, we have differentiated needs at home and in public. However, these needs have not been taken into account centrally in the planning of cities, public spaces, and facilities.

Care work also affects women’s mobility in the city. Studies show that women, in order to meet multiple care needs, follow more complex and polygonal commutes in the city on a daily basis, making many short trips (Day, 2011)[v]. A female mother, for example, might leave home in the morning to walk her child to school, then do the daily shopping, go to work (which she may prefer to be part-time), pick up her child from school, take the child to an after-school activity, and so on. Women seem to prefer (when possible) to move around the neighbourhood and either walk or use public transport. Men, on the other hand—who are still regarded as the household’s primary breadwinners—move in a more straightforward and linear manner, travelling from home to work and back. Private car travel functions most effectively for this kind of movement (together with other socioeconomic factors). Given all that has been said, it is clear that women have it harder when it comes to travelling, because modern cities are designed with the emphasis on private car travel. Women who opt for more environmentally friendly modes of transportation, like walking and public transportation, must deal with a variety of hazardous and challenging daily travel situations, such as poorly maintained pavements, unsafe crossings, inadequate public transportation, infrastructure, etc.

Another aspect that influences the differentiated experiences we have as women and femininities in the city is the city at night. Already in adolescence, girls adopt various techniques to feel safer when moving in public spaces, especially after dark. We modify our itineraries to avoid specific locations; we would rather walk on the pavement in the middle of the street where there is greater light; and we quicken our pace if we suspect someone is following us. All these techniques are embedded in the daily lives of women in the city and have become normalized. Women, femmes, and girls often feel that we do not have the right to be in certain areas of the city, particularly at night, as our bodies are targets for comments, harassment, and even assault.

How can the city meet everyone’s needs?

The aim of feminist urban planning is to put care at the centre of planning and thus provide visibility to women and the roles that they play on a daily basis on a family, neighbourhood, and community level. A city that cares (or a city of care) creates, promotes, and recycles caring processes within itself. Through a circular pattern, care that starts from the bottom, i.e., mainly from women at the micro-level of the family and neighbourhood, is reinforced by the care that the city offers to its inhabitants. People who give and receive care channel it towards other people, to themselves, to the environment, and to the city itself. Subsequently, the care offered institutionally (from above) is multiplied within the community, the neighbourhood, and the individuals themselves, and it ends up returning in a non-gender-specific way. Instead, care is connected to multiple functionalities and everyday life’s needs within the city.

In an urban space where we feel cared for, a sense of security is transmitted and reinforced. Well-marked and well-lit spaces, as well as continuous pedestrian crossings in public spaces, create a condition where women and other vulnerable social groups can move around the city more comfortably, without fear of possible harassment or assault. In a city designed with care at its heart, emphasis is placed on what has escaped stereotypical design, namely male and female pedestrians, public transport mobility, rest areas, parks, recreational spaces, services, and urban facilities that take into account all the basic tasks of care on an everyday basis. That way, everyone can enjoy the city equally and take part in its design, and the city can ultimately meet everyone’s needs (Col-lectiu Punt 6, 2019)[vi].

The “Ioannina: Bridges of Participation” programme 

The “Ioannina: Bridges of Participation” programme, supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, aims to add a gender perspective to the urban design processes of the city of Ioannina. At the same time, the project aims to reinforce the Municipality of Ioannina’s actions regarding fostering the inclusion of vulnerable social groups and the expressed need to combat discrimination and reinforce an equality-based culture. To this end, specific participatory research and design tools and methodologies will be employed. 

The programme will be carried out in two phases:

1. A course of three experiential workshops with citizens (focusing on the participation of women and LGBTQ+ people).

The aim of these workshops with Ioannina citizens is to familiarise themselves with the gender perspective in the city, to highlight their everyday experiences in it, and to record their needs and desires for change in specific urban areas, which we will explore and map together through group walks.

2. A course of three workshops for technical services’ employees of the Municipality of Ioannina. 

The main objective of these workshops for people working in technological departments and services of the Municipality of Ioannina is to familiarise themselves with gender issues and to include a gender perspective into the Municipality’s practices. At the same time, there will be an overall update to the Municipality’s chief departments regarding the workshops’ results in order to further highlight and implement the relevant interventions. 

Why the city of  Ioannina? 

Ioannina is a specific example of a medium-sized city that combines urban and natural landscapes. Over the last decade, a series of multiple urban interventions in the city’s commercial centre and on the lakeside road have significantly changed the city’s form and mobility. In addition, the reconstruction of Pyrrou Square and the creation of a roofed underground parking area have eased accessibility to the centre of Ioannina for people commuting with private vehicles.

These interventions have changed residents’ lives but have also provided a greater incentive for tourists to visit. The growth of tourism brought about the building of new hotels as well as a boost to business and industrial activities. Moreover, the Municipality of Ioannina is implementing a series of activities that focus both on urban interventions and the inclusion of vulnerable social groups in the urban area, with a vision to promote inclusion and participation in the city.

However, it seems as if the recent changes in the city are mainly focused on specific categories of the population, such as people who own cars, do not have any disabilities, or aren’t caregivers of other dependents, such as kids, elderly family members, etc. As a result, a wider spectrum of the city’s diverse social groups’ needs and desires is not taken into consideration. 

Ioannina is a city that has been constantly changing in recent years. Both the social imperatives and the needs expressed by women and other vulnerable social groups create a growing demand for inclusion in the city, participation in urban design, and (re)appropriation of urban space as a hospitable field, open to everyone. The values we stand for, with a focus on the right to the city for all people, regardless of gender, origin, age, or disability, are a useful tool for exploring, mapping, and implementing the Ioannina of the future.