Beyond the Blueprint

Abstract

The concept of the Gendered City—urban spaces where individual experiences, access to resources, and safety are deeply influenced by gender—has emerged from the field of feminist geography. Lived experiences are inherent to the Gendered City as they expose the everyday spatial inequalities between men and women. As the concept of the Gendered City gains traction in academia and urban planning, research increasingly seeks to address these spatial inequalities. Gender mainstreaming, a strategy aimed at integrating gender perspectives into all aspects of planning, emerges as a key approach. However, top-down applications of gender mainstreaming often fall short, hampered by vague definitions and limited insights into the actual spatial needs of women. This lack of clarity prevents a tangible understanding of gender mainstreaming’s impact on urban spaces. Meanwhile, emerging participatory planning processes offer potential for a grassroots approach and an opportunity for incorporating the lived experience of citizens into urban planning. However, the conventional participation processes often overlook equitable methods and fail to capture these nuanced realities. This research examines how gender mainstreaming can be advanced as a bottom-up spatial strategy through developing a citizen participation framework that addresses spatial inequalities of the Gendered City by centering lived experiences to. By employing an explorative approach from the field of participatory action research (PAR) qualitative research is conducted with experimental methods. The study examines the intersection of gender-based urban planning and participatory planning through expert interviews, workshops, exploratory walks, a case study and a quasi-experiment. The research identifies actionable strategies of to address gender issues in citizen participation which ultimately promote a more equitable urban landscape for everyone, regardless of their gender.