As designers, creators and makers of the built environment, we are curious about how to make public spaces and office environments work well for women. The topic is certainly not new. Since women have become a part of the workforce in large numbers, research has already shown that both public spaces and office environments are designed based on the so-called 'reference man' rather than a 'reference woman'.
Urban spaces are designed based on traditional male paid work patterns. While women or people doing traditionally female unpaid work (think grocery shopping, picking up children from school or taking them to various activities) actually struggle to make these urban spaces work for them.’
This 'Feminist City' series explores how we can make these public spaces and office environments work better for women in particular. The series highlights different perspectives of women in cities and explores how urban planning, urban governance and office design can better support women in their daily lives. Within the series we focus on the Netherlands, most of the examples and legislation are also from the Netherlands. The academic research used is mostly from Europe or the United States.
