Planning, Regeneration and the Gender Equality Duty – why does gender matter?

1. Planning, Regeneration and the Gender Equality Duty – why does gender matter? Dr Gemma Burgess RGS-IBG Conference 2008 Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research

2. Introduction • Many gendered patterns in the use of space, but planning policy tends to ignore the fact that men and women use public space differently (Greed, 2005). • Results in environments that often disadvantage women and do not meet their needs. • Gender Equality Duty (2007) requires public authorities involved in planning and regeneration to take gender equality into consideration. • Research looking at examples of good practice.

3. Gendered space • The urban is a key spatial scale through which gender is experienced and constituted (McDowell, 1983) • Urban form and process and locational differences within cities thus actively construct gender as well as other social relations (Bondi and Rose, 2003) • There is an obvious correlation between power and space - what gets built, where, how and for whom. Cities are literally concrete manifestations of ideas on how society was, is and how it should be (Beall, 1997) • An active process, cities are not just the scenery for the playing out of gender (Garber & Turner, 1995); the urban environment plays a role in shaping gendered identities, practices and power relations.

4. Gender and spatial planning • Social exclusion and regeneration cannot be addressed without taking gender issues into account, because men and women experience poverty differently (Greed, 2005) • Experience and use space differently but the gendered patterns in the use of space are often not explicitly considered in spatial planning • Implicit assumptions about gender roles in urban planning.

5. Different patterns in use of space • Women make more complex journeys than men, often travelling to childcare, school, work, and shops (‘trip-chains’) • More than twice as many women as men are responsible for escorting children to school • Seventy-five per cent of bus journeys are undertaken by women • Poor public transport and lack of caring facilities and shopping outlets near employment locations restrict women’s access to the labour market • Women have lower average incomes than men, have greater caring responsibilities, are the majority of lone parents and are more likely to live in poverty on deprived estates • Men are more likely to suffer from violence in public spaces and some groups of boys perform relatively poorly at school (Greed, 2005)

6. What could considering gender in planning achieve? • Public transport routes that support women’s travel patterns • Measures to make public space feel safer at night • Employment opportunities locally, meaning more mixed use development • More women would be able to take employment, training, and leisure opportunities • Economic development opportunities would be increased and social inclusion programmes would be more effective.

7. The Gender Equality Duty • Following the models established for race equality and disability equality in public bodies, the Single Equality Act 2006 introduced in Part IV of the Equality Act the Gender Equality Duty • Fundamentally, the duty requires more than equal treatment for men and women. Public bodies must promote and take action to bring about gender equality • Planners will increasingly be required to show explicitly how they have considered the gendered impacts of regeneration programmes and spatial plans.

8. What are practitioners doing? • The research has been focusing on case studies, looking for explicit consideration of gender or engagement with the Duty • Identify ‘good’ practice • Oxfam’s ReGender programme

9. Lewisham • Gender can be linked into other high-level overarching policy issues, such as sustainability, economic growth and social inclusion, particularly through regeneration programmes • The London Borough of Lewisham uses an Equalities Impact Assessment spreadsheet in which gender implications and other equality issues are assessed for each policy area in the Unitary Development Plan • As a result, Lewisham shifted its policy on employment site provision to provide more local jobs to benefit women and reduce long-distance commuting (Oxfam, 2007).

10. Greater London Authority • The GLA’s Gender Equality Scheme deals explicitly with regeneration and urban planning. The Scheme recognises the need for involving women in consultation, stating the need to ‘ensure the effective engagement of girls and women in London’s regeneration and ensure regeneration meets their needs’ (GLA, 2007) • In regeneration policy the GLA states that, ‘women need access to employment and training opportunities close to home, access to good local services, access to affordable childcare, access to convenient, affordable and safe public transport and an urban environment well-designed for personal safety’ (GLA, 2007).

11. Nottinghamshire community alliance • Public participation and consultation are widely sought on planning and regeneration issues. However, to address the needs and concerns of both men and women they need to be equally involved • For example, in a local authority community alliance in Nottinghamshire, local authority officers noticed that it was harder to engage men in consultations. The majority of people involved were mothers working part-time. They trialled different approaches to achieve a more even gender balance in their work. For instance, they extended their opening hours to include some evenings and weekends. This helped increase the involvement of working women and men. They have also tried to engage with men in different places such as bookmakers and working men’s clubs.

12. South Yorkshire • Local authority planners have a major role in ensuring gender is taken into account locally • For example, in a South Yorkshire local authority officers piloted a ‘community safety audit’ in a Neighbourhood Development Frameworks (NDF) area • The audit recruited a group of local women to go on a ‘walkabout’ around the city with designers. The women’s views have since been written into the designer’s planning brief.

13. Limitations • Barriers to realising the potential of the legislative changes • Other strands of the equalities agenda have been prioritised over gender. As one local authority officer said, ‘Gender has been last in people’s response to the equality agenda. Race has been emphasised more and for longer’ • Lack of interest and even a degree of hostility

14. Limitations • In local authorities that have been more proactive and engaged it is the result of one or two passionate individuals or senior women in management roles in the council who have been driving the efforts • One interviewee said that the legislation now gives their efforts to have gender taken seriously some real ‘clout’, but also said that it ‘is a slow, tortuous process’.

15. Recommendations • In order to have a broader impact, the importance of considering gender needs to have corporate backing across a local authority or city to prevent actions being undertaken by only a handful of interested individuals • Gender Impact Assessments and Equality Schemes need to be really engaged with, not just exercises to ‘tick the box’ • More advice and training is needed to give planners and regeneration practitioners information about how to turn the requirements of the new legislation into practical actions.

16. Conclusions • As yet, impact of the Gender Equality Duty on planning has been minimal in regeneration and planning • Slow process of change in public authorities, will take time to see impact

17. Conclusions • This legislation could be used to try to bring about quite radical transformations in the nature of urban space and the social relations within it • Rather than simply leading to policy changes that support the status quo, such as recommending the locating of childcare facilities near to women’s employment, the Duty could be used to encourage more fundamental shifts in how we live and work and the gendered social relations that underpin these activities • The Duty was welcomed by feminists for its radical potential in transforming the gendered social relations of urban space. Whilst there are examples of engagement with the legislation, its transformative potential is yet to be realised.

18. Planning, Regeneration and the Gender Equality Duty – why does gender matter? Dr Gemma Burgess RGS-IBG Conference 2008 Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research