Public space

Women experience and navigate public space differently to men. Attitudes that the public sphere is for men has shaped how our places are planned and operate.

Public transport still largely runs on the out-dated idea of a male ‘breadwinner’ commuting centrally to an office every day while women and children stay close to home, and doesn’t work for women’s current lives in Scotland.

The threat of violence against women dominates our everyday decisions about where to go, when to arrive and leave, and how to get there, severely impacting on our freedom to navigate the world the way we want to.

The internet is also a public space where women are required to be to access education, social security, work, and contact with friends and family. Yet online, women are regularly exposed to abuse and harassment, often with no recourse to justice.

GUEST POST: Feminist urbanism: Creating gender-equal cities in Scotland

Blog – Aug 30, 2023: In this post, Beth looks at how women and men experience public space and urban environments and how we can create gender-equal cities in Scotland.

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GUEST POST: Digital abuse against feminist scholars: a case study

Blog – Aug 23, 2023

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GUEST POST: Reflections of the Student Placement Experience - An Insight into the Women’s Sector in Scotland

Blog – Aug 2, 2023

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GUEST POST: 'Text me when you're home!'

Blog – Jun 9, 2023

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Engender Parliamentary Briefing: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2021

Nov 24, 2021: Engender welcomes this debate to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2021 and the start of 16 Days of Activism. This is the 30th year of the international campaign recognising the global epidemic of violence against women, with 1 in 3 women worldwide subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner, non-partner or both, and the full continuum of violence perpetrated against women, including sexual harassment, violence in digital contexts, harmful practices, and sexual exploitation.

Date of publication: November 2021.

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Engender response to the Scottish Government consultation on Local Place Plan Regulations

Jun 25, 2021: Engender welcomes this opportunity to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on Local Place Plan Regulations. While women often play a central role in local community organising, they continue to be underrepresented in formal decision-making around planning and development, and consideration of women’s distinct needs remains almost entirely absent from Scottish Planning frameworks. While we recognise that Local Place Plans (LPPS) aim to support community-led and collaborative approaches to management and development of local places, we are concerned that the proposals perpetuate this exclusion and offer no plan to ensure the inclusion of women.

In this submission we have not focused on the content, registration and form of a Local Place Plan, believing this to be beyond the scope of our expertise. Instead, we have drawn attention to some critical considerations regarding women’s representation in community planning processes and the extent to which gender considerations can be ensured. We have also commented on the ‘partial equality impact assessment’. We strongly urge the Scottish Government to include a duty and framework for proactive consultation with communities of interest, including women, within the regulations for LPPs.

Date of publication: June 2021

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Engender response to the Scottish Government Consultation on Proposed Changes to Pre-Application Consultation Requirements in Planning

Nov 13, 2020: Engender welcomes this opportunity to comment on the Scottish Government’s proposals for Changes to Pre-Application Consultation Requirements in Planning. In order to ensure that planning processes result in places that are more inclusive, diverse and empowering, communities of women must be involved in planning processes.

Date of publication: November 2020.

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Engender response to the Scottish Government ‘Call for ideas’ for the National Planning Framework 4

May 8, 2020: This is a response to the Scottish Government ‘Call for ideas’ for the National Planning Framework 4. To date, gender equality has not been integrated into the public planning system in Scotland. However, women experience and navigate public space very differently to men.

This response was drafted before measures to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 were instituted. Since March, the scale of impact of these measures has brought to line an enormous range of issues, many of which have direct links to how we use public space, for example, a lack of access to green space including for children, and the design of cities restricting the ability to safely social distance (pavement widths). Additionally, demand on health and social care, including women’s unpaid care roles has expanded enormously. Women’s lesser access to digital forms or participation and increased responsibilities for care and domestic work add to their exclusion from consultation processes.

Date of publication: May 2020.

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Engender response to the Scottish Government consultation on Scotland’s National Transport Strategy

Oct 29, 2019: This document is Engender's response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on its National Transport Strategy. The use of Scotland’s transport systems is highly gendered. Women are the majority of public transport users, and the minority of drivers and cyclists. Women also tend to make more complex and frequent journeys due to caring responsibilities and working patterns. Scotland’s current transport systems, however, do not reﬂect the different needs of women.

Date of publication: October 2019.

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Combating online abuse: Whose job is it anyway?

Blog – Aug 16, 2019

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On the Engender: Gender Matters Online

Blog – Aug 27, 2018

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On the Engender: Gender Matters in Planning

Blog – Aug 6, 2018

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On the Engender: Gender Matters in Public Transport

Blog – Jul 17, 2018

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Engender Parliamentary Briefing: Local Government and Communities Committee Debate on the Planning Scotland Bill March 2018

Mar 22, 2018: Engender briefing on the Planning (Scotland) Bill. This briefing indicates our support for calls to strengthen provisions of the Bill related to parliamentary scrutiny, clarity of purpose, community empowerment and policy coherence. We recommend integrating gender equality throughout these, as an objective that will contribute to the Bill’s stated aim to empower people and communities to get more involved and to have influence over development.

Date of publication: March 2018.

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Gender Audit Series: Population, Households & Families

Mar 5, 2014: A summary and discussion of the implications of data from the Gender Audit of
Statistics [Breitenbach,E. and Wasoff, F. Scottish Executive Social Research 2007] relating to care and caring prepared by S. Macpherson, Engender Associate and E. Thomson.

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