Forty years have passed since Dolores Hayden, Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies, Architecture and American Studies at Yale University, described in a famous essay: Great internal revolutionl’the commitment and dreams of the early feministsWe are convinced that, in order to achieve emancipation, domestic work and childcare must be included inorganization of public spaces. Today we know two things: that this did not happen and that, yes, the cities we live in are patriarchal and do not respect the needs of women for this very reason.
Florencia Andreola, an architect and urbanist who, together with Azzurra Muzzonigro, conducted a study of gender inequality in urban settings, explains: “If in Italy, as in many other countries, care work was divided equally, and not 75% on the shoulders of women, we would not be talking about gender here, but about cities that are inadequate to meet the needs of children, the elderly, the disabled and those who care for them.” Instead, moms, grandmas, and nannies often have to push strollers to get to a subway platform where there is no or no elevator, ride on uneven or too narrow sidewalks, and avoid abandoned bikes everywhere. with disdain. . “It’s as if the needs of half the population were invisible, in line with the standard vision that cities belong to men because they have always belonged to them, and women’s place is in the home, even more so in post-Covid when women’s employment is falling faster than average, and the smart work that many workers bring home burdens them even more,” continues Andreola.
signshostile urbanization they are everywhere, starting with public transport, increased in hours of entry and exit from offices and on routes that go from the suburbs to the center and vice versa, which is functional for those who divide their day between home and work, but punish those who are forced to drive more clearly articulated daily life, consisting of short journeys in stages. For example, take the children to school in front of the office, and in the evening swim with them in the pool. The lack of women-centric thought in urban design is also reflected in women’s restrooms in airports, train stations and clubs, almost always crowded, dirty and with endless lines at the entrance, emphasized by biological causes, especially during the menstrual cycle. Not to mention the malpractice of defining women’s restrooms as the only ones intended for children as well, in keeping with the twentieth-century idea that the burden of care rests solely on women.
However, most of all the places we live become inhospitable when we don’t feel safe, even if we know that the greatest number of crimes against women are committed within the walls of the house and at the hands of men about whom nothing is known. “The city can be repulsive, especially at night, in poorly lit or less visited areas,” says Andreola, “but the feeling of insecurity is also linked to the cultural construct. Ever since we were little girls, we’ve been told not to go out alone to be driven back and avoid certain roads, and in the end, it turns out that we don’t actually walk those roads. Or that we are convinced that it is better not to go out in the evening, as happens with 36.6% of Italian women according to Istat.”
Men-friendly cities built by men, given that women hold only 10 percent of leadership positions in international architecture firms, according to the World Bank. “Although 55 per cent of architecture students in Italy are students, our cities are still designed by men,” confirms Francesca Perani, the first to be branded “architect” of her own Order with two colleagues. Bergamo. “If someone asks if women are different from design, the answer is: no. But we, who carry the brunt of the burden on our shoulders, know better than anyone today what makes a city truly inclusive and accessible.” Perani, along with the RebelArchitette collective she founded, contributed. “We have published 365 biographies, one per day, to promote national and international architects so that new generations will be inspired by female models, and now our portal hosts a thousand profiles of excellent professionals.”
So did the Argentine architect Zaida Muxi Martinez, considered a pioneer of urban planning. One day | architectwork then merged into a book Beyond the threshold. Women, houses and citiespublished by Dpr-Barcelona. When will Netflix Spain be released in May conversations, a document series of 14 interviews with names from the world of architecture by Arquitectura viva director Luis Fernández-Galiano, Muxi wrote an outraged letter signed by more than 6,000 signatures. “The interview involved Siza, Piano, Foster and others, 13 European architects and one American, all men,” he explains. “The director apologized, but clarified that they were filming between 2013 and 2018: as if there were no real architects in those years!”
Which direction to follow, explains the American geographer Leslie Kern in his own book. feminist city (Treccani Edizioni): “A feminist city is a city in which physical and social barriers are dismantled, one that focuses on helping, not because it should remain a female prerogative, but because in this way the city could divide it into greater degree.” one way.” It may sound belligerent, but his thoughts are in line with the World Bank, which has issued guidelines recommending that housing, public transport, and mobility infrastructure design should be gender-responsive. What planners, project managers and architects have so far neglected, the UN agency admits. How do you do this? The only possible way: listen to the needs of women and vulnerable people in urban planning. This is not the case in Italy, but in another nearby country, this practice has already changed the face of cities: in Vienna, which has been rethinking its space from a gender perspective for thirty years and now has 50 pilot projects, and in Barcelona, where every public intervention goes through budget tables and women’s participation.
Source: Elle