Because smart cities must put women at the centre
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L’access to cheap and reliable transportation is one of the biggest obstacles tofemale occupation globally. For this reason, when designing the smart city, the needs of women must be put at the centre. This is the conclusion reached by a study by World Economic Forum.
The priority is to rethink transportation
Transport is an essential part of daily life, analysts recall, but for half of the population public systems do not offer adequate answers to the needs of daily mobility.
Consider the gender issues in the design of smart cities it means, for example, that in public transport not only the linear movements typical of commuter traffic 8-19 (male) are taken as a reference, penalizing the way of moving of women which follows more fragmented models, made up of small movements linked to the needs of care work or part-time forms of work. The same goes for the design of spaces, which in order to be truly inclusive must be rethought starting from listening to female needs, welcoming them and modeling cities around them.
According to a recent study by theInternational Labor Organization, the global labor force participation rate for women is just under 47%, versus 72% for men. With an adequate transport system, adds the analysis, female employment could be increased by about a sixth compared to current values, thus exceeding 60%.
The positive examples
Among the cases cited by the World Economic Forum is Buenos Aireswho developed a intelligent mobility system based on gender analysis. “Our Gender and Mobility Plan (Plan de Género y Movilidad) intervenes in various areas: planning, design and management with a gender perspective; the goal of increasing the number of women working in the transport sector; more research into everyday mobility and safety with a gender perspective,” she says Manuela López Menéndez, councilor for transport and public works of the Argentine capital. She points out that women usually take more time and money to move around for daily activities and face harassment with a certain frequency when using means of transport. The first step towards a gender-based mobility transformation is to understand the unique and variable mobility needs between the sexes, analysts at the WEF say.
Inclusive mobility
Cities interested in investigating this and other issues relating to fair, inclusive and sustainable urban mobility – adds the analysis – can join the initiative Urban Mobility Scorecards from the Global New Mobility Coalition to gain access to a community of cities, businesses and NGOs working together for a more sustainable future.
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