The city of women? There is none in Calabria, but it can be done
“Be careful. Have them take you back if you’re late. That road is dangerous if you are alone, especially in the evening. Hurry up and don’t answer.”
These are some of the warnings girls have started hearing as soon as they are old enough to go out and experience the urban spaces without the supervision of their parents or other adults. When we walk alone, especially in some neighborhoods and especially after sunset, we implement a mechanism of self defence automatic that should protect us from harassment in the street. Whether verbal or physical, dal whistle to groping in public transport even rape, harassment is a constant risk at the base of a generalized and often normalized anxiety that surrounds women of all ages.
These premises are useful for understanding the surprise when, a month after my move from Cosenza to Vienna, I told a friend that I felt extremely safe in the new city. Did I forget to pack those worries, or is there something different about this city? Talking to other women who live here, I discovered that this feeling is quite widespread. Is it a coincidence or, on the contrary, is it the result of a precise project? The answers are due: gender mainstreaming and urban feminism.
Gender mainstreaming and urban feminism
For gender mainstreaming we mean a strategic approach gender oriented to the definition, writing, implementation and evaluation of public policies. The goal is to fight inequalities of gender in every area of society, starting from the rules that regulate society itself.
But what about urban feminism? Before answering, let’s take a step back and ask ourselves what cities are. A mix of buildings and streets? Reflection on cities begins with the urbanization processes during the industrial revolution.
For example, the first sociologists began to reflect on the effects of urbanization on people and their social relationships. Already in the 19th century it was clear that in urban spaces bricks are not just bricks. In addition to the aspects of quantity and scarcity, such as the size and density of the population, cities are made up of the social stratification of groups with different characteristics and among which forms of inequality exist. Urban feminism, as one might predictably guess from the name, has how main focus the differences between men and women.
Cities and dangers for women
Geographer Leslie Kern, in the essay The feminist city. The fight for space in a world designed by men, shows how cities help shape social relationships. Anxiety and fear of unsolicited sexual advances and harassment mentioned earlier are examples of this. Kern explains how cities are perceived and made to be perceived as dangerous places for women.
“Harassment and unsolicited sexual advances feed this fear: women feel constantly sexualized, objectified and uncomfortable,” but this fear is projected outwards and not towards the home or family. “In contrast, domestic violence, child abuse and other much more widespread ‘private’ crimes receive far less attention.” Qualitative feminist work on women’s fear in cities reveals what seem to be contradictory and insurmountable problems: women are afraid in closed and open spaces, crowded places and deserted ones; on means of transport and while walking; alone in bright light or invisible in the dark.
Security is not just control
What to do? A simple answer might be to use a security approach but, as Kem herself points out, «the increase of state and corporate surveillance, the militarized police and the privatization of public space, have the same probability of decreasing safety for others», whereas with others we refer to other marginalized social groups such as migrants or members of minority ethnic groups.
In my years as a student at the University of Calabria, for example, I clearly remember the requests of some student associations such as RDU di increase video surveillance and vigilance to ensure more safety. This was the response to cases of harassment or assaults against female students at the university. Discussions arose about it, but the basic question remained: can safer spaces be guaranteed for women without resorting to security changes?
Differentiated needs
Vienna, in this sense, has shown me that gender mainstreaming and feminist urbanism can work together to create a livable and inclusive city. It all began in the early 1990s with the idea of designing a city that worked just as well for men as it did for women. The first essential question was: how different are the needs of men and women in the city? In 1991 Vienna conducted a first study to evaluate how the use of means of transport varied according to gender and it emerged that men move daily mainly by bike and car while women prefer public transport and two thirds of pedestrians are women.
In the same year Eve Kail and Jutta Kleedorfertwo urban planners, organized a photographic exhibition called Wem Gehört Der Öffentliche Raum? Frauenalltag in Der Stadt (Who owns the public space? Daily life of a woman in the city), in which it was documented the daily life of various residents belonging to different social classes. For example, one passed from the life of a young student to that of an elderly lady passing through a Turkish migrant housewife. What emerged was the need for all to live in safer spaces and in which it was easier to move.
Custom cities (also) for women
In 1999, a new study was conducted to understand how and why Viennese residents traversed the city. The men’s routine was simple enough, men mostly commuted between home and work. The movements of women, on the contrary, were varied and involved dropping children off and picking them up from school, shopping and grocery shopping, family doctor visits, and family visits to the elderly. Thus began serious work on accessibility, safety and ease of movement. For instance, improved street lighting to make it safer to walk at night, widened more than a mile of sidewalk and introduced pedestrian-friendly traffic lights. In Italy, in Calabria – and in Cosenza in particular – it doesn’t seem to me that such targeted studies have been conducted, but we can reflect on some information.
For instance, it is easy to guess that the movement routines of a Viennese woman and a woman from Cosenza are more or less similar: invisible work and care work weigh more heavily on women, therefore, it will be women who move to accompany their children to school, to play sports and it will above all be women who will take care of the expenses and other activities connected to care work. And yet, is it possible to move easily in Cosenza only by public transport? From my personal experience, as a woman without a car, I can say no. And what are the condition of the sidewalks? Can a person carrying a stroller move around the city safely?
Aspern, a women’s neighborhood
But it’s not just about lighting or public safety interventions. A study was conducted on cemetery visitorsin which it emerged that they are in the majority older women. To adapt the cemeteries to their needs, work has begun on clearly visible signage, the installation of toilets and the increase in safe benches.
In 2015, however, the young girls of a school near Reumannplatz were invited to tell what kind of urban space they would like around. From confrontation with girls it was decided to build an open-air performance space and to redesign a nearby play area to make it more accessible and safe.
Among the projects under construction there is the Aspern district, whose works should be completed in 2028 and which should house 20,000 people and 20,000 daily workers. The neighborhood is built around the Alte Donau lake and half of the area has been devoted to the construction of public spaces. The entire neighborhood has been designed to meet the needs of families and women. As a symbolic gesture all the streets, squares and public spaces have been named after womenfrom Hannah Arendt-Square a Ada Lovelace-Strasse.
toponymy? Men’s stuff
Sure, the street names are just a symbol, but the toponymy engraves on the faces of the city the names of people who are thought to have been important and, sadly, generally only men are thought of. And the toponymy of Cosenza? Out of more than 500 streets named after men, fewer than 50 are named after women and nearly half are saints, Madonnas or churchwomen. But beyond the symbology of the names, how many public spaces in the city are safe for women or dedicated to the needs of families? In addition to Piero Romeo Park, made by Terra di PieroI can’t find other spaces where I would take a boy or a girl to play in the urban space.
In addition to urban planning interventions, there is more. A part of the Viennese feminist project, in fact, also concerns the awareness. A campaign called “Vienna sees it differently” was launched for sensitize and inform the administrative staff, who work at the municipality, and the citizens on the stakes of gender mainstreaming.
For instance, the signs indicating the swaddled depict men intent on changing the diaper to the children, while women have been shown in the road signs warning that there is work in progress work in the construction industry. Moreover, in different centers for children it was decided to adopt an education attentive to gender issues. This consists of avoiding gender stereotypes in playing or reviewing school supplies and songs for avoid sexist clichésI.
It’s not just the center
The shape that you decide to give to a city has a strong impact on the quality of life of those who live there, but cities are not just showcases of which only the center proudly displays. The activities that involved Vienna, protagonist of over 60 projects dedicated to the city, didn’t just concern Stephansplatz and the places most frequented by tourists. The Aspern district, for example, is located in the 22nd district and is well away from the centre. The projects in which Vienna was the protagonist have put at the center the needs of citizens and not just the reflected image to show to those who spend no more than a week here.
Frances Pignataro