Cities - Women in the city - OECD Conference 1994

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OECD Conference on Women in the City
OECD Headquarters 4 to 6 October 1994

Women in the city: housing, services, and the urban environment; Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Washington, D.C. : OECD Publications and Information Center; 1995. 170 p.

Femmes (les) et la ville: logement, services et environnement urbain; Paris; OCDE (Inter Organisation de Coopération et de Developpement Economiques). 1995

Summary of the publication

Women often exercise unequal rights when it comes to their homes and to cities.

This publication brings together a wide range of expert papers and examples of good practice in planning and managing cities which were examined at the OECD conference on Women in the City. It forcefully make the point that more flexible and dynamic policies are necessary to encompass the diversity of city-dwellers and their differing needs regarding housing, neighborhoods, environmental and urban services.

It argues that not only must women participate more fully in decision making processes, but enhancing their contribution to the development of urban life can help achieve sustainable urban development.

Cities are dynamic. Given high unemployment rates, often concentrated in specific areas, increased immigration and migration, an aging population and changes in family structures, issues such as how to adjust to greater social and ethnic diversity, and the need to improve the environment and local quality of life, have become a growing priority for many citizens. There is a need to generate a stronger "sense of belonging" in cities and to improve access for women and marginalised groups to the locii of the decision processes which affect daily life.

For urban decision-makers in the public and private sector and for planners, understanding and mastering the complex social, financial and economic parameters which shape cities has become increasingly difficult.

This publication urges OECD governments, at both the national and local level, to introduce a gender perspective into the planning and management of cities in order to more fully take into account the increasing social and enonomic diversity of city dwellers.

More liveable environments must be created around homes and in neighborhoods, and health and safety in cities ensured. Better access to more affordable housing and to employment within reasonable distance from the home are called for. What are women's contributions to these issues? What are the gender dimensions of urban transport, for example?

This publication covers many of the key issues facing city-planners as they plan for the future, and makes the case for increasing the role and contribution of women to urban policy making for the benefit of all -- women and men, the young and the elderly.

Conclusions and Action proposals from the Round Table (chapter 6) pp 117-129

In the course of the Round Table discussion, representatives of OECD Member governments identified the following actions to improve the role and contribution of women to urban policies:

Enhance the theme of "citizenship" to recognise women's right to participate fully in all spheres of activity in cities.
Improve the representation and participation of women, especially of elected officials, at all levels of public life, in decision-making bodies which affect urban policies, and in urban planning and related professions.
Develop and introduce the use of time series gender-sensitive indicators and targets for use in the formulation of urban policies, and for monitoring and improving the representation of women in public life and in decision-making bodies.
Establish and seek appropriate financing for networks at the local, regional, national and international level: to develop a policy research agenda; to improve the formulation of urban policy issues and responses from the viewpoint of women; to organise links between experts and grassroots movements, between different countries and regions, and between different levels of political representation. An important role of the networks would be to:

highlight and foster examples of innovative urban projects which demonstrate gender-sensitive perspective.
organise conferences and events at international, national, regional and local level to disseminate the results of research and projects which demonstrate the role and contribution of women to urban policies.

5. Make better known, via the media and new information technologies, innovations in urban policy desired by women such as:* relating environmental and social issues to key urban policy sectors such as transport, housing and economic activity;

the development of a planning process and system of urban management which incorporates the views of the diverse groups making up the urban population;
the use of legislation on equality to improve urban planning legislation;
improving the role and contribution of consumers of public services;

attributing greater importance to questions of everyday life in the making of urban policy;
improving safety and combating violence in the home, in the street and in public places;
promoting cultural and leisure activities and facilities which recognise and enhance the contribution to and role of women in society.

6.Ensure that gender issues in urban policies are taken into account:

in the UN Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995;

in the UN Habitat Conference in Istanbul in 1996;

in the urban policy agendas of all levels of government;
in the programmes of work of international organisations;
in educational institutions and by professional bodies in the urban policy and related fields.

In summary, the Round Table agreed that women should:

participate;
identify the pathways and opportunities to enhance participation;
work for recognition of diversity in the community;
create and participate in projects and secure the continuation of some of the ideas and networks formed during the OECD Conference on Women in the City.

During the Round Table Ms. Sirpa Pietikainen, Minister of the Environment of Finland, proposed the creation of a EuroFEM Network to support and encourage womenled initiatives in human settlements (see Inset 34).

Reports by rapporteurs of the conference themes

Theme I: Women and urban policies Rapporteur: Ms Janet Kiff-Macaluso, Canada

Theme I on "Women and Urban Policies" established an intellectual framework for the entire Conference. The issue papers presented were supported by illustrative case studies of innovative practice at the local level.

First the historical context was recalled, explaining how classical urban planning has placed women in a secondary role in urban development and tended to reinforce this position. Changes to the conception and processes of urban planning to bring it more into line with the evolving needs of today's citizens were seen to be long overdue. Speakers offered a number of policy solutions developed from a variety of perspectives. The view that cities no longer respond well to modern demands and that people with restricted access to resources are usually those who are most disadvantaged permeated the presentations and discussions. It was stressed that the majority of those with restricted access to resources tend to he women, particularly the elderly and middle-aged, as well as children.

There was a consensus that cities need to be recognised as dynamic structures. Continuing change - socioeconomic, cultural and demographic - requires that urban policies also be flexible and dynamic if they are to respond well to the needs of city dwellers. For example, the focus of modem planning on the traditional family as the main economic unit of production is problematic in view of the increasing diversity of the composition of family groups and increasing numbers of people living alone.

It was stressed that the important changes occurring in cities affect women deeply. Women represent a high proportion of urban populations and must be a major focus of urban policies, planning and politics. However, caution should be exercised not to replicate the mistakes of our predecessors in the domain of urban planning, who developed cities on the concept of a modem, uniform man. It should be recognised that women are not one homogeneous group and future policy developments should take this fully into account. There are elderly women; working women; women with the majority of responsibilities in the domestic sphere; there are women who are trying to balance many of these roles at the same time.

The Conference also recognised that women are not the only group which has been excluded from urban governance, from the development of urban policies and from the planning of our cities. Other groups also suffer from discrimination and these too must be included in the planning process. Cities must be inclusive and welcome social diversity.

One possible way of examining and dealing with the diverse needs of residents of cities which has been put into operation in several Scandinavian countries, is to focus on the concept of the needs for "everyday life". Finland provided a good example of one way of doing this through the inclusion of children in the planning process at neighbourhood level. This is inclusive of all people who live in cities, and of their economic needs, their social needs and the requirements of the urban environment. This concept can also be sensitive to gender issues.

Theme I noted the lack of information available to assist in providing for the needs of different groups which make up the urban population. There is an urgent need for gender-sensitive information as well as information about other groups such as visible minorities, people with disabilities, the elderly and the young.

A main conclusion arising from this analysis of the dynamics of the city is that we need new forms of governance. In the past, planning has tended to be sectorally and hierarchically oriented and there is, perhaps, now a need to create horizontal forms of organisation, to have more co-operative policy making, and to include groups which are negatively affected by current policies in order to make urban policies more responsive to the needs and the aspirations of all citizens.

In the discussion, it was suggested that women's issues should be brought into the mainstream of politics and policy development. The advantages of such an approach are that this prevents the marginalisation that may occur when women's issues are regarded as a sector and are not substantially resourced as a result. By integrating women's issues into mainstream policy-making, greater control may be exercised over the resources which are directed towards specific needs. However, the discussion also raised concern

about mainstreaming in as much as there could be a loss of influence as women's issues became one of many that have to be taken into consideration within policy development, and that the role of grassroots movements could he diminished.

It was argued that this need not happen as issues can be mainstreamed whilst maintaining a role for advocacy groups and having officers that particularly monitor the status of women to ensure that a reduction in priority of these issues does not occur. Norway provided a working model for integrating women's perspectives into the mainstream of the planning process, while recognising the need to continue the grassroots women's advocacy movement which has brought the issue of the needs and contributions of women to urban policies to the fore. A case study from Switzerland indicated some of the difficulties which are associated with improving the participation of women, whether it is at the grassroots or at a more formal level.

The need for women's issues to penetrate urban institutions through mainstreaming while maintaining local activism, highlighted the importance of forging strong links between the grassroots movement and professionals developing policies, as well as between those same professionals and the ultimate decision-makers. It is evident that the more women hold positions at all of these levels, the easier and stronger these links will be.

However, it was stressed on many occasions throughout the debate, that increasing the number of women politicians or the proportion of women entering the planning. and related professions, does not suffice. Other tools can be used and other areas need improvement. What was highlighted was the need to train professionals, both men and women, so that they understand and can include women's perspectives within their professional frames of reference. This involves knowing how to gain the perspective of women and then using this information in planning and managing cities. This requires gender-sensitive, economic, social and health data, including better information networks and specific strategies which correspond to women's needs and facilitate the contribution which they can make.

Finally, in this Theme, it was understood that there is an important role for the OECD to play in setting priorities in the arenas of women's and urban affairs so that Member countries of the Organisation can begin to understand and ultimately respond. The OECD also has a major role in setting an example for how new forms of governance can be formulated and established and how the mainstreaming of women's issues can actually be achieved.

Theme II: Housing and neighbourhood environments designed with women and children in mind Rapporteur: Mr George Cavallier, France

How does one go about describing the wealth of ideas that were exchanged on the theme of Housing and Neighbourhood Environments Designed with Women and Children in Mind during the Conference?

There were so many varied, interesting papers, some overlapping with other themes, that it would be hard to summarise all that was said.

So perhaps it would be better to adopt another approach and endeavour to pick out the most significant strands of the debate, the main points that recurred in the majority of papers.

This is the approach I have opted for. Without wishing to oversimplify - although that is the risk a rapporteur runs - I have divided my report on the debate into three convergent parts. The first is a statement on the consensus achieved on the objective; the second expresses the hope that what has so far been possible can now be achieved; and the final part outlines a possible thrust for future policy.

1. Unanimity on the objective: promoting the role of women in the design and management of housing and the urban environment is far more than just wishful thinking - it is a must.
There are two distinct and mutually supportive reasons for this.

First, women suffer more than men from the inconvenience caused by poor housing
design and the failures that stem from bad urban planning. Apart from the direct functional implications that such failures and defects can have, women are perhaps more than men the victims of the segregation that may result. They are highly sensitive, for example, to the feeling of being boxed in and isolated when specific forms of housing are located too far from city centres.

Changes in lifestyles (due to an ageing population, the increase in female employment, and the growing number of single parent families) can only aggravate these drawbacks.

So there is a good reason to eliminate such handicaps, close the gap and tailor housing and urban planning to the legitimate aspirations of women. This is the initial reason why we propose that policy should be designed for women.

The second reason, perhaps less obvious, raised less often but nonetheless important, is that women, by their very essence as much as by their role in society, possess a wealth of sensitivity, skills, knowledge and potential that should be mobilised for the benefit of all.

Yet in every country we have failed to put to good use the potential women have to enhance housing and the shape of our cities. It is therefore high time that we set to work, not only for women but also, and above all, with women for the benefit of all those living in the city.

2. One hope has emerged: new opportunities are arising, and it could be that what was formerly impossible may now be feasible. This is due not only to a change in attitudes but to the interplay of a number of objective factors.

Apart from an undeniable increase in awareness of this issue, it would seem that the
major economic and social changes now disrupting urban planning and development will
also produce an environment more conducive to this kind of work for and with women.

Urban decision-making is bound to be deeply affected by the profound change in the economic environment.

For instance, the globalisation of production will mean increasing unpredictability; the rise in real interest rates will leave decision-makers less room for manoeuvre and make them increasingly aware of their inability to make forecasts, even in the medium term.

Social factors too have just as strong an impact. For instance society is increasingly heterogeneous, established values are questioned, authority and sources of funding become dispersed, failures abound and there is a growing demand for security.

Accordingly the values that affect people's private lives, their individual understanding, their ethics as individual citizens are gradually replacing the deference formerly shown to those in positions of political authority or reputed to have technical expertise.

For instance, the trend is shifting away from decreeing - a priori and from the top down - that a project is in the public interest, and is moving towards a more procedural approach, involving a somewhat painful process of dialogue, discussion and conflicting expert opinion, where necessary but difficult trade-offs have to be struck between widely differing values.
This shift has strong implications for urban planning and development:

- as the same causes can no longer be relied upon to produce the same effects, the rationale behind urban development must be adapted and responsive. Flexibility is the answer. There must be on-going co-operation between decision-makers, designers and users so that the necessary adjustments can take place gradually;
- "object-led urban planning" and dogmatic totalitarianism that predominated for so long are now things of the past. The key word now is "multi-sectoral". The study of interaction and system effects is becoming decisive.

Admittedly these changes have not been painless, but they do offer the opportunity of giving life and substance to local discussion and local public action.

Accordingly, the hope is that the untapped potential women represent in terms of social and cultural creativeness, know-how and experience can be mobilised more effectively to achieve better designed housing and cities which are more user-friendly.

3. Some directions for future policy.

Most of the papers strongly underlined the fact that policy is essentially based on the
dynamics of local initiatives, and on the active participation of women who are directly affected by a practical community project.

Local initiative is irreplaceable, and it is in every country's interest to promote it. It means encouraging anything constructive at grassroots level, adapting to local circumstances, fostering partnership and developing mediation. This will serve not only to build sound projects but also to foster and strengthen social ties. It is therefore all the more important in sensitive neighbourhoods facing a combination of problems and failures.

But local initiative has its limits and some pitfalls must be avoided:

optimisation is only achieved when local initiatives are in line with national priorities and there is cross-fertilisation between action at every level. To be fully effective, the bottom-up approach should coincide and create synergy with top-down measures. Urban policies should ensure that the appropriate fora and arrangements are there to provide institutional opportunities for comparing, inter-facing, combining and dovetailing the two approaches; - defending local interests in an antagonistic or short-sighted way may lead to isolation and self-protection, failure to open up to the outside world, or beggarthy-neighbour attitudes;
local projects cannot rely solely on the energy and strength of local actors. They also require the support and participation of economic decision-makers with a direct influence on the project, even if they are based elsewhere;
local initiatives are usually planned over the relatively short term, whereas structural policy for urban development can only bear fruit over a longer period.
Apart from this general thrust, a number of priorities emerged from the case studies and subsequent debate:

In democracies such as ours, public awareness is the main factor, even the driving force, behind any far-reaching social change. Only by changing attitudes, ideas and patterns of thinking can scope be created for genuine reform. It is therefore essential to promote the role of women in the design and management of our everyday environment, to mobilise opinion and make people aware of the size and seriousness of the issues at stake.
But awareness, however essential it may be, can never replace a detailed grasp of the issue. Better understanding will lead to more effective action. Observation of what is happening in our cities and neighbourhoods is highly inadequate and should be developed on a large scale. For instance, who would have thought, had we not been told by the Healthy Cities Project, that at least 20 000 women were victims of domestic physical or mental violence in Glasgow every year?
Efforts must also be made to develop the tools linking facts or statistics to decision-making. Housing requires particular analysis, in terms of both demand and markets.
At a time when society is growing more complex and the future less predictable, sound management means diversifying the housing supply as much as possible by acting on supply factors (type, size, location, type of funding, etc.) and matching it more closely to demand, which is in turn becoming increasingly diversified.
Given the limited resources available to many female heads of households, and the obstacles they encounter in taking out loans, it is vital to eliminate discriminatory practices regarding access to loans, and to develop every means possible of helping them to remain creditworthy when they run into difficulties (identifying women with problems, helping them with formalities and procedures, setting up mutual guarantee or solidarity funds, providing help to prevent eviction, as welle as suppotive social services, etc.)
Even if the democratic process is growing increasingly abstract, remote and purely relational, and even if the technical planners are losing sight of local realities, there is still considerable social communication thanks to urban public spaces. Streets, squares, parks and community facilities should remain places where people and ideas can circulate freely, where people can mix, mutually acknowledge one another, harmonise their behaviour and learn what citizenship means. Particular attention should be paid to the design and management of these open spaces, which have been far too neglected recently. Experience has shown that when it comes to urban development, "empty" spaces are as important as "full" ones.
Rising insecurity, the spread of petty crime and growing drug abuse are crucial issues when it comes to peace in our cities. Women, often the first victims, are particularly anxious about this. Government has a decisive role to play here. But the gap is widening between the growing demand for a secure environment and the lack of success achieved with repressive measures, which may well be essential but are proving singularly inadequate. Accordingly, the preventive approach, which has already proved its worth, should be systematically developed. Security should he treated as a public good, produced on a joint basis through preventive work that is interdisciplinary, pragmatic, co-ordinated, based on observation and dialogue, and mobilising actors at grassroots level with experience of the workings of self-regulation at local or community level.
New information and communication technologies certainly hold out promising prospects. They can be put to good use in promoting women and their role in cities, particularly through the provision of special services delivered direct to the home. There have been convincing experiments to prove it. However, we should beware of the perverse effects; because a certain amount of skill and training is needed to operate these technologies, they may - if no conscious, deliberate policy is put in place - merely broaden existing divisions and heighten discrimination against women.
Finally, to accelerate structural change and make these ideas a reality, it is vital that women not only participate in local initiatives as they are already doing, but also that they be given genuine responsibility, as much in public and political life as in the professional world of urban development.

Theme III: Urban services responsive to the needs of women and children Rapporteur: Ms Maria de Lurdes Poeira, Portugal

The Chair of the Session, the Minister of the Environment, Finland, Ms Sirpa Pietik5inen, stressed three main points at the outset of the Theme on Urban Services Responsive to the Needs of Women and Children. First, the provision of urban services is a political and ideological issue concerning both the different everyday lifestyles and the different values of individuals; second, the majority of social questions are related to gender; and third, mobility issues are different as they relate to women and men.

The Theme focused on three aspects of urban services: Accessibility, Mobility and Improving Education and Employment Opportunities.

Accessibility

Accessibility was analysed from two different perspectives. First, physical accessibility, and secondly temporal accessibility or timing aspects.

A case study on physical accessibility - the "Open Sesame" Project from Haringey in the United Kingdom - examined accessibility to shops and services and highlighted the importance of location and design for women, particularly those with children and/or elderly people. There was agreement that the search for efficient and effective solutions to improve access requires that diverse groups of actors be consulted in the development of projects: the users (mostly women); the planners; and the developers.

Next, an Italian case study concerning new timetable arrangements for urban workers aimed at facilitating accessibility to work and to the home demonstrated that the issue of the utilisation of time has great importance for women. This approach also requires the involvement of the diverse groups making up the urban population. The changes proposed must be efficient, must consider the issue of optimal location of services and, ultimately, the social impacts of any proposed solutions. Women are well placed to be involved in the formulation of new arrangements considering their important role in urban society and the institutional support they provide.

Mobility

Mobility is an essential aspect of high quality urban life which affects the lifestyle and opportunities of all residents. If transport provision does not take into account the needs of the different groups utilising the urban system, the city cannot be efficient, convenient or safe for everybody. This was stressed by the Japanese example which focused on the elderly as one of the vulnerable groups within urban society. Another example was the use of mobility indicators in France which showed that women are more affected by the negative consequences of the greater use of private cars and by the nonparticipative planning of the public transport system. The present crisis affecting urban systems, especially the economic and financial constraints, is having negative consequences on women's lives because of the limitations being imposed on the possible solutions for improving services such as much needed improvements to public transportation systems.

Education and employment opportunities

The third aspect of this theme focused on education and employment opportunities for women. The main issue relative to the improvement of the quality of life for women in cities was highlighted by the "Retravailler (return to work) Project" in France and by the Minneapolis Neighbourhood Employment Network Project. Education and employment are essential elements in improving the life of women in cities. However, there was agreement that solutions must be viewed cautiously. Many employment opportunities are short term solutions to longer term problems that require a much greater sustained effort. Many are also of an illusionary nature, in the sense that they are not well integrated into the socioeconomic system of cities.

The presentations and discussions under the theme on Urban Services gave rise to a number of conclusions of a more general nature:

First, women are important urban actors and must participate in the discussion, assessment and the decision-making process for the development of urban projects.
Second, information to facilitate analysis and assessment of urban issues must be made available and women must, through improved education, information and/or by other specific mechanisms for action, attain sufficient capacity to allow them to analyse urban processes and propose solutions adapted to their specific perspective.
Third, participation and action must be integrated into global proposals and processes aimed at achieving a more balanced urban system.
Fourth, there is a need for urban planners to move forward from defining problems to proposing innovative solutions which are supportive of women.
Fifth, numerous innovations and mechanisms which have been experimented with in developing countries under very difficult conditions have shown promising results. These set an example for OECD countries. Exchange of information is critical if innovations and improvements are to be made in the quality of life of women in cities of both OECD and non-Member countries.

Conclusions of the Chair of the Conference
Ms Jean Augustine, M.P.

The OECD Conference on Women in the City has provided a wide forum for consultation concerning the role of women in urban policies. Participants included national delegates, local officials, researchers, practitioners and representatives from international organisations, who came together to better understand the gender aspects of urban development and the role of urban issues in gender equality, and to deliberate on relationships with urban sustainability.

We started by drawing attention to the changing socioeconomic and environment trends which are affecting cities and the people who live in them, in particular:

- globalisation of the economy and its implications at the urban level;

- high unemployment levels, often concentrated in certain areas;

- demographic changes, including ageing and changes in family structures;

- increasing awareness of the need to improve the environment and the local quality of life;

- increasing marginalisation of urban sub-groups and continued exclusion of these groups from urban decision-making.

Participants agreed that these deep economic and social trends require that urban governance and policies be rethought in order to respond better to the needs of the whole, heterogeneous urban population, and in particular to better reflect the gender aspects of urban development. To date, most action has been ad hoc or has consisted of pilot projects, implemented on behalf of women, where urban structures and services have been adapted to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups such as elderly women and single parents. It was stressed that too little has been done to plan and i-nanage cities with women. A fresh perspective is needed. Women should now be recognised as integral players in urban management processes. The involvement of women and men in the control of their everyday life will go far in improving gender equality. The new political and economic context must not exclude anyone from participation in urban affairs. Thus will require a spirit of dialogue and partnership.

The Conference participants were of the opinion that such a change and the resulting increased role of women in urban affairs will help to make the city function more efficiently and improve the quality of an urban environment that responds to the shared values of men, women and children.

Various initiatives that would help to bring planning with women into reality were identified during the Conference. It was stressed particularly that institutional and regulatory arrangements should be adjusted in order to enable women to participate more properly in the urban planning process. A number of positive actions should be undertaken:

- The social and physical environments of cities, and the economic efficiency of cities, require that the role of women and gender issues be integrated into the mainstream of the urban policies of governments.

- In particular, the role of women should be integrated into the mainstream of OECD activities. Projects in the work of the Group on Urban Affairs, including Cities and the Economy; Urban Governance (and particularly its indicators component); the Young and the City; and Distressed Urban Areas, clearly should integrate gender considerations. There should be a systematic follow-up to this Conference.

- Other OECD units also deal with sectors of urban affairs whose efficiency has gender dimensions (e.g. transportation, employment, environment, industrial practice and trade), and gender relationships should be systematically examined therein.

- OECD should build on current international initiatives concerning gender relationships in urban affairs by transmitting the results of this Conference for consideration in preparations for the Vienna Preparatory Conference for the UN Conference on women in Beijing; the Cities and the New Global Economy Conference; and Habitat 11.

- The Group on Urban Affairs should consider establishing joint initiatives or networks with interested countries to deal with specific aspects of planning with women, such as housing, transport and local economic development.

- The Group on Urban Affairs should promote local experiments and transfer of experience in the area of women's participation in local planning and governance.

Finally, I urge all of you to transfer these conclusions to decision-makers in your own countries, and to follow through with actions. The delegates to the OECD Group on Urban Affairs should be encouraged to help the OECD and other bodies in their efforts to increase the role of women in urban affairs. I also urge countries which participated in this Conference to continue the dialogue and exchange which started at OECD during the last three days.

external links

Accessed 2001 Jun; OECD website for conclusions; GéneroUrban
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Availability in OECD bookshop: Out of print Publication date: 29 Aug 1995 Language: English Pages: 170 ISBN: 9789264145702 OECD Code: 041995051P1Cities]]