What if Women Designed the City? A Threshold Time

Urban planning suffers from a historic gender gap in theory, policy and practice- my work attempts to bridge this gap

My thesis ‘What if Women Designed the City?’, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, has been accepted. This is a threshold time for me; and I am savouring every zeptosecond of space in time

Working in practice for most of my professional life, the leap to pursue a doctorate was often a restless and unnerving experience. For 4 years, I entered the seemingly limitless field of doctorate research and embodied the state elegantly captured by the French phrase: ‘Je suis en thèse’.

Hours and hours dedicated to a living flow of language as symbols and signifiers, references and constructs, including and transcending, attempting to push the boundaries of knowledge. Thinking the thoughts of others – ‘thoughting’. And thinking my own thoughts. And at the end of the day, questioning: what if Buckminster Fuller was right, and what if what I thought was a farsighted attempt to bridge the historic urban planning gender gap, was already obsolete, when taking on board the speed that knowledge is created in our age.

I wondered how many thousands of decisions go into the process of building your thesis argument. I treasured the days I spent in readiness to make conscious decisions and, of course, shouldering the consequences along my PhD journey.  My body at times would fill with the sudden thrill of adrenaline as my mind tended to new ideas with patient curiosity. I also remember periods of feeling like a boat adrift, losing a sense of direction, wavering as I examined a new scientific paper that seemed to question my understanding and certainty. These contrasting experiences have now become a living memory.

Conversations with Diana Agrest from Cooper Union

My thesis drew on the theory and practice of generations of women, many of whom worked in the urban planning field long before I entered it.

Drinking from the Source

My thesis drew on the thoughts and experiences of generations of women, many of whom worked in the urban planning field long before I entered it. Over the last decades Catherine Bauer (1934), Jane Jacobs (1961), Dolores Hayden (1981), Elizabeth Wilson (1991), Leslie Kanes Weisman (1992), Daphne Spain (1992), Doreen Massey (1994), Diana Agrest (1996), Dory Reeves (2004), Hilde Heynen (2005), Doina Petrescu (2007), Laura Elkin (2017), Leslie Kern (2021), amongst others, have offered radical critiques and developed theoretical frameworks for analysing different aspects of the gendered mediation of everyday urban experiences.

I am thankful for the inspirational and rigorous – often challenging but always generative – support of my supervisors, Dr Anne Cumming and Dr Husam Al Waer, on this PhD journey.  My gratitude also extends to a wider circle of academicians and experts within the University of Dundee, in particular to Dr Dumiso Moyo who opened the door for me into academia.  I must also express my gratefulness to Pamela Mang from the Regenesis Group, who generously offered her mentoring support and whose profound vision of regenerative pathways for humanity and the planet greatly inspired me.

As a work of applied research, I thank Edinburgh City Council, Glasgow City Council and Perth & Kinross City Council officials who believed in the relevance of my study, and paved the way for a bountiful participants recruitment. Without the generosity of the 274 women who participated in walking interviews and shared their time, this thesis would have not materialised. I was profoundly impressed by their levels of engagement and the depth of their thinking – and am very grateful for their substantive contributions.

Mapping the bio-cultural-spatial uniqueness of place from women’s perspectives through walking interviews

Consolidation of New Grounds

The ancient ones often said ‘first the leap, then the consolidation of the new ground’.  By listening to 274 women as experts in living and shaping their neighbourhoods, my study identified 38 leverage points on how urban planners, policy-makers, practitioners, and communities could intervene in urban planning systems, so that cities of the present and future can become greener, more inclusive, liveable, and poetic.

The results will be made public in form of an easy to read and compelling to apply book, on course to be launched in Summer 2023 and coming courtesy of the system thinking publishing house Triarchy Press – thanks to Dr Daniel Wahl for the introduction. Triarchy specialises in publishing works that remind us to be aware of the world around us, in all its layered complexity.

A typical Wien cafe with Eva Kail- a world reference in gender-sensitive urban planning with 40 years of practice in Vienna

The book agreement was intentionally signed in Vienna, a city that holds one of the longest legacies of gender-sensitive planning in Europe. And, in appropriate synergy, was signed in the presence of the urban planner Eva Kail, who has witnessed the establishment of the city’s Women’s Office in 1992, followed by the pioneering efforts of the Coordination Office in 2001, which was tasked with rolling-out gender mainstreaming principally in the Planning, Civil Engineering and Building Construction departments of Vienna City.

Vienna has since conducted over 60 gender-sensitive projects including Aspern Seestadt neighbourhood, considered one of Europe’s largest urban developments with a ‘female face’, and a series of placemaking measures democratising the way women and girls use and experience public spaces.

Janis Joplin, Hannah Arendt and Simone de Beauvoir – the streets at Seestadt are all named after great women

Now that I have signed the contract with Triarchy Press, a whole new poetic journey begins.

Let us know here if you wish to be notified when the book What if Women Designed the City? will be available.