Glasgow set to become the UK's first 'feminist city'
On October 27, Glasgow City Council unanimously backed a motion stating that women should be at the heart of all aspect of city planning, becoming the first city in the UK to embrace 'feminist urbanism'.
Feminist urbanism advocates for a type of urban planning that promotes inclusivity and puts the needs of women, non-binary and genderfluid people at the forefront of the way we think of the urban landscape. Because, perhaps unsurprisingly, our cities are far from being gender-neutral.
Scholars of feminist urbanism argue that men have historically been in charge of designing the cities we live in, and they did so thinking of their own needs and habits, often overlooking or sidelining issues of safety and accessibility affecting women and sexual and gender minorities.
The cities we inhabit and the spaces within them are experienced in different ways by all of us, with factors like gender identity, background, ethnicity and age playing an important role in the way we move across the urban landscape. A straight white man, a gay Black teen, or a middle-class 80-year-old woman with a disability will all experience the city in different ways.
But our cities weren't built thinking of each and everyone's specific needs. For a long time, gender-neutral defaulted to male.
"[Glasgow] Council notes a gender-neutral approach to city development does not work, that women and people of marginalised genders have diverse needs that are not currently reflected in practice and that an intersectional, inclusive and climate-friendly approach is needed," said Glasgow Green councillor Holly Bruce, who pushed forward the groundbreaking motion in the Scottish city.
"Council agrees that in order to create public spaces that are safe and inclusive for
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