Sex and the city: planning takes little account of women's lives – new gender research database launched

It is still a man's world when it comes to rebuilding Britain's towns, with workplaces, schools, health centres, public transport and even public lavatories invariably being planned without taking into account the way many women live, a new report claims.

Regeneration schemes traditionally cater far more effectively for men than women. Tilting the balance could cause a 'radical transformation' of the social fabric, the study finds.

The researcher, Gemma Burgess, of Cambridge University's centre for housing and planning research, said: 'Looking at gender issues in planning is central to success in economic regeneration. Social exclusion and regeneration cannot be addressed without taking gender issues into account because men and women experience poverty differently.' The report was discussed in The Guardian.

The Women's Design Service, working on a project called Gender and the Built Environment funded by knowledge transfer programme UrbanBuzz, has come to similar conclusions. It has created a new online database called Gendersite to encourage more planners and designers to explore existing research relating to gender and the built environment. Gendersite lists and references books, bibliographies, broadcasts, case studies, conference papers, journals and reports

‘Treating the sexes “equally” simply doesn’t work,' says Wendy Davis, GBE project coordinator and director of the Women’s Design Service (WDS). 'Although the Gender Equality Duty requires all public bodies and their contractors to actively promote gender equality, there are no guidelines on this for built environment issues as there are, for example, for disability.'

The Gender and the Built Environment will be holding holding several workshops during the UrbanBuzz Building Centre showcase event between
6 October and 15 November, as well as a launch event  on 2 October 2008 at the Octagon, Queen Mary’s University London. This will be an exhibition with tours, training, keynote speaker and an evening reception. For details and registration information, please email: gendersite@wds.or.uk

Findings from the Cambridge report were presented by Burgess at the Royal Geographical Society's annual conference in London last week. She says that inadequate policies on the use of land end up separating residential areas from where people work. Unless schools and shops are within easy reach of jobs, women's employment prospects can remain limited.