Case for planning change
The reasons why the design of cities in South Africa fails to meet the needs of women
WORLD Town Planning Day is observed today and is intended to recognise and promote the role of planning in creating liveable communities.
For many in our country, their communities are far from liveable, and this is especially true for women.
With more than half of the population of South Africa being female, our country’s cities need to be planned with women in mind.
Cities such as Vienna in Austria are taking gender into account when forming public policy; this is known as “gender mainstreaming”. This is about ensuring that all gender perspectives are considered in public policy.
With this in mind, here is a list of nine ways South African cities are not designed for the needs of women, and ways they can be improved:
1) Public transport is not accessible enough. Providing accessible public transport would improve the lives of all our citizens, so why would it specifically impact women? Well, on average, women use public transport more than men. This is because women use public transport more frequently during the day due to the varied pattern of movement that comes with taking their children to school, going to the shop, taking their children to the doctor, and going to and from work; whereas men generally use public transport to go to work and to return from work.
Accessibility is translated as more transport options in the day, outside of peak hours, and more transport hubs.
2) The streets are not well-lighted. Public safety is a huge concern for the women of our country. Sadly, the rates of gender-based violence are five times higher than the global average. By lighting our streets, our parks, our taxi ranks and other public spaces, we remove opportunities for women to be attacked in public.
3) Our pavements are too few and too narrow. As mentioned, women use public transport more on a daily basis than men due to their family and childcare responsibilities.
In line with this, women walk in our public spaces more to access points of public transport. Women need pavements to push prams or wheelchairs. The urban design of areas such as KwaMashu and Phoenix show narrow pavements, which cannot service the needs of women – leading them to push their prams in the road.
4) There are too many stairs and not enough ramps. Similar to the lack of wide pavements, the absence of ramps affects women in their ability to transport their children and loved ones who require prams and wheelchairs.
5) There is a lack of safe public restrooms for women. A lack of public toilets is a serious issue. This is not just an inconvenience, it is a public health issue and more needs to be done to ensure that women have access to public facilities.
A startling statistic indicates that in Khayelitsha alone, sexual assault would be reduced by 30% by doubling the number of functional bathrooms. These public restrooms need to be indoors, as women are vulnerable to sexual harassment or violence when they use an informal outdoor toilet. There needs to be more public restrooms for women that are made safe and are kept clean.
6) There is a lack of baby changing facilities. Again, this becomes a public health issue especially as it pertains to infant and child health. Without baby changing facilities, travelling with children becomes limiting, impacting on overall female productivity.
7) Our parks are not designed for girls. A study found that the number of girls who play in the park dramatically decreases after the age of 9. What researchers found was that girls were less assertive than the boys, so when there was competition on who got to use the park space, the boys usually won. In response to this, parks need to be built with additional spaces for girls and young women; these spaces range from badminton and volleyball courts to more benches, which will encourage them to linger.
8) There aren’t enough affordable, accessible childcare centres. Childcare centres are a dire necessity for both women and children. Access to childcare facilities translates into women earning better salaries.
In the absence of affordable childcare services, women may be required to leave the labour force, or take on lower quality, lower-paid jobs. Accessible childcare also means women are more productive, less stressed, less likely to be absent from work and more motivated, which stimulates the economy. For the child, proper caregiving is crucial to their overall development. By having more childcare centres, our children are better taken care of, and our women are able to earn more.
9) There aren’t enough women making decisions on our public spaces.
By excluding women from the planning of our cities, we are excluding women from our cities… in that their realities are not considered or accommodated.
Female urban designers and town planners should examine their own personal experiences and then develop questions on how to design cities built for all.