What is your city doing to ensure a balanced gender equality system?
With the increased awareness of gender equality issues over the past decade, along with the aggravation of the gender gap during the pandemic, many segments of the world’s population are right asking about what measures are being taken to resolve this imbalance.
In our world, a modern, smart city needs to understand the priorities of its citizens and put them at the decision table in order to find suitable solutions - from their part in civic and political life to representation & participation, economic equality, public services, and so on. EU policy states that gender equality is a fundamental right and goal, however, many urban policies still don’t take this into account enough when planning their future development, or do so inadequately.
Two years ago, URBACT (a European exchange and learning programme promoting sustainable urban development, which I’ve had the pleasure to work with in the past across eight different development projects for Alba Iulia), launched the Gender Equal Cities report in order to draw attention to measures that can be taken locally to reduce gender-based inequalities. Over the past year, many studies show how the pandemic has hit traditional female sectors the hardest while highlighting that most of the care responsibilities that came along with working at home have been taken on by women. Another reason for concern which we’ve learned during this latest period is a rise in reports of abuse - with women increasingly facing more instances of domestic violence and other forms of abuse, making it harder than ever to be able to rely on a support system that can help them.
Luckily, we’ve already seen many examples over the past year of how cities can thrive under female leadership, and learned about the centrality of women’s contributions and the disproportionality of their burdens when compared to men.
URBACT has already undertaken the mission of creating a series of specific recommendations that can help solve these issues, and aid in putting gender equality at the heart of new urban developments, such as:
Ensuring a gender-balanced representation in politics and economy
Include women representation in stakeholder groups
Aid marginalized and vulnerable women
Use gender budgeting principles to show how funds benefit women
Empower women to contribute to economic recovery through targeted initiatives
Invest in social infrastructure that benefits families and women’s contributions
Address physical and mental health needs for women after prolonged lockdowns
We don’t have to look far and wide to find cities that are already taking action on this matter. Frankfurt, for example, has secured additional emergency support at short notice for women facing violence during lockdown; Trikala is planning a pop-up intervention in an urban space to raise awareness; Barcelona Activa is opening up a space dedicated to facilitating women entrepreneurship associations and organizations to meet and collaborate.
These are just a few of the steps that European cities are beginning to take, and I look forward to seeing these expand as examples of thought and policy leadership throughout the world.
