# gender matters

The invisible gender of

everyday
spaces.

Take the quiz
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Hello, Mr…s…?

Pronoun tells how you want others to perceive your gender. Here we’ve included the most common gender pronouns of today. If you are new to the neopronouns, take this chance to get familiar with these non-gendered pronouns which represent diverse gender identities.
Welcome to gender matters!

Before we start…
What is your gender pronoun?

You are not alone!

She

%

He

%

Ze/Xe/Sie

%

They

%
3
2
1

Get ready...

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Apart from your pronoun, have you thought of the pronouns for our urban spaces?

Are urban spaces…
also gendered?

Yes

%

No

%
Back

Give yourself 30 seconds… which gender pronoun will you choose for
a single, open lawn?

She

%

He

%

Ze/Xe/Sie

%

They

%

of our readers feel the same!

Does it mean girls may not have the confidence to compete with boys for large open spaces?

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of our readers choose other answers.

Does it mean women report levels of fear of crime higher than men’s, and how about gender queers?

Ah-ha… then how would you pick the gender pronoun for
a public park at night?

She

%

He

%

Ze/Xe/Sie

%

They

%
Back

Here comes the last question in this first part… How about the gender pronoun you would pick for a
main road at peak hours?

She

%

He

%

Ze/Xe/Sie

%

They

%

You sync with of our readers

What does this represent?

We are generating your
#gender matters candy

  • Why do gendered urban spaces relate to me?
  • Are urban spaces inherently gendered?
  • How can urban spaces improve gender equality?
Scroll down for answers to some of the common questions we all have about genders in space >>>

01

Are urban spaces inherently gender-biased?

Yes!

Urban spaces are inherently gender-biased from the very first beginning. It’s time to read our public spaces in a new way… starting with the easiest understanding of binary gender roles.

Different Perception of Safety

First, females are socially-conditioned to be more concerned about personal safety in the public realm.

Male
    Female

      Young women feel 10 times less safe in public spaces than young men.

      (Arkitekter, 2018 cited in Shaikly & Lira, 2022)

      Male
        Female

          Women often report levels of fear of crime 2-3 times higher than men.

          (Tandogen & Ilhan, 2016)

          Male
            Female

              And this affects how women approach our city.
              In the UK, 40% of young women aged between 11 and 21 feel unsafe when they leave their homes and avoid doing activities alone.

              (Girlguiding 2020; Walker and Clark, 2020 cited in Shaikly & Lira, 2022)

              Traditional gender role

              in which males are the breadwinners while females are the homemakers has huge implications on how women travel and enjoy public spaces in the city.

              In Barcelona, women make more trips throughout the day, especially between 11am – 2pm and 4pm – 8pm.

              Meanwhile, men make most of their trips between 5pm – 8pm for peak hour work commutes.

              and only 0.7% of women in Barcelona travel out of the city alone.

              Not only for travelling, a seemingly-neutral public playground can be gendered as for the more dominant roles of males in a patriarchal society in history.

              Single large open spaces force girls to compete with boys for space and they don’t have the confidence to do so. Therefore, they tended to just let the boys have the space.

              Conversely, when the space is subdivided into smaller areas, the female drop-off can be reversed.

              02

              Gendered-biased urban spaces, are we addressing??

              Is our city doing well in addressing gender bias?

              Yes

              %

              No

              %

              We hope so, but…

              Who are making decisions for us?

              Public domain

              Women remain under-represented in government.

              Private domain

              Women are still the minorities in the boardroom.

              Even Le Corbusier…

              the Swiss architect was devising a standard human model for use in architecture, represented by a 6-foot man with his arm raised. Man has been the standard proportion for design, from furniture to the city.

              The built environment is still a man’s world

              Women make up about only 29% of the membership in the Hong Kong Institute of Architects,

              And 9% of registered engineers in Hong Kong.

              Based on gender-blind data

              There is a lack of gender-disaggregated data to reflect the need of women in using the city. As such, our city is designed based mainly on men’s experiences.

              Do you feel that urban professionals consider the needs of women?

              General
              Professional

              In a global survey conducted by Arup in partnership with the UNDP and the University of Liverpool, which interviewed women across the globe on women experience in the city,

              39%of survey respondents feel that urban professionals do not consider the needs of women, compared to 8% who do.

              Moreover, 20% of male professionals feel that they themselves consider the needs of women, compared to 6% of female respondents.

              When women’s right to the city is jeopardised, it will be problematic to achieve long-term wellbeing not only for women but also for everyone in the city.

              03

              Why(how) urban spaces can improve gender equality?

              Sex-disaggregated Data could be the first step towards a more gender-inclusive city.

              Sex-disaagregated urban data can allow designers and policy-makers to understand how women use the city, which can eventually lead to gender-informed public investments and policies, thereby promoting more gender inclusive outcomes.

              Snow-ploughing can also be gendered?

              The approach of prioritising arterial roads in snow-ploughing adversely impacted women, as women and children predominantly used cycleways instead.

              There was a cost to it:
              69% of pedestrian injuries were women. The estimated cost of these falls was about USD$3.7m per winter.

              Catering women first decreased accidents by 50% and saved the local government money.

              How is Hong Kong doing?

              The average ratio of male-to-female users was 1.8:1 in 338 highly utilised public toilets in Hong Kong. The ratio hits 7:1 in one of these public toilets.

              This may be a good start of using sex-disaggregated data, which reveals the disparity in the use of public toilets between genders, calls for the investigation of the underlying causes, and perhaps will lead to a more just resource allocation and better designs.

              The debate on public toilets is just a tip of an iceberg. Other gendered urban experiences in a “seemingly-ungendered” world are in need of attention.
              Before you go, remember there are more than male and female as the gender types. #gender matters, all genders matter.

              Read our GUTS CASES to know more about gender mainstreaming in our built environment.

              “Seeing” Gender in Urban Space
              How Did Urban Spaces Become Gendered?
              How is Hong Kong’s progress in addressing spatialised gender inequality?

              # gender matters

              This is the urban candy you unwrapped! Enjoy!

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