fr gonna use this opportunity to write a thread about what actually makes for feminist cities - this stunt is little more than fair & lovely changing its name to glow & lovely energy - we need to understand that cities are built on the twin principles of capitalism + patriarchy https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/1289479761694056448

this means that modern urban planning is focused on economic development of the city, not social dvpt, liveability or quality of life, with its technocratic planning including zoning, master planning, attendant practices - what you see around you are automobile centric cities

cities - infrastructure, roads, bus routes, transport - are designed for upper / middle class cishet men, owns private transport, working for a 9-5 job, where there is a clear separation between the residence & the workplace, under the assumption that he does paid productive work

womxn do unpaid domestic + care work, walk, use public transport, tend to have multiple stops - called trip chaining - ex. drop child off at school, go to work, pick up groceries, pick up child - often in the same locality, same for urban poor who tend to live close to their work

Space is not neutral. to understand how non-cishet men use the city - for womxn, queer folk, urban poor, persons w disability - we need to focus on the everyday life - what is their everyday use of cities & how to plan for them? Needs understanding that space is socially produced

for ex. - too many women stay in abusive marriages - for a woman w kids to leave, from an infrastructure perspective, she needs a job, home close to the job, affordable child care - so city planning for a woman means dense mixed use neighborhoods offering all three in one place

womxn, esp from marginalised communities walk - even in home w private transport, first claim to the vehicle is w men in the family - gender equal city needs well-maintained footpaths, street lights, free public washrooms open 24/7 w gender neutral option, changing tables, parks

womxn are not a universal category by any means - possibly only thing they have in common is the threat of violence in public spaces / private spaces - class, caste, gender, sexuality, age, religion, ability - all complicate access to the city - but who is the city designed for?

but before that, let's get into what moderates a womxn's access to the city - safety - notice how pandemic times city has emptied the streets of womxn, as Why Loiter explains most womxn in India access the city for a purpose - strategizing for safety in the city is a gendered exp

discourse of safety in urban public spaces is deeply flawed (home is more often a site of deep violence as feminists point out) under the guise of safety, honour based cultures like ours depend on gender segregation, prevent undesirable liaisons re caste class religion sexuality

HIGHLY recommend reading @WhyLoiter which explains in beauts detail all of these issues about womxn re Indian cities - but safety is oft cited to keep a class of womxn out of the streets, good vs bad womxn trope, except what makes womxn safer in a space is having more womxn there

Jane Jacobs also called this street surveillance / eyes on the street in her famous book, Death and Life of Great American Cities - which means that having people walk in the city, the city in constant motion, with street vendors, people who use the footpaths make cities safer

how to make a feminist city? Building safe + accessible cities for womxn, which means public infrastructure focused on womxn's needs, creating safe public spaces, urban policies designed to get womxn out of homes & occupying the city - ex. free public transport for womxn re Delhi

many womxn already occupy the city - sanitation workers, sex workers, street vendors - cities are actively hostile to working womxn + mothers - free public restrooms are ESSENTIAL for womxn - for folks who menstruate, need to provide childcare, lack private toilets - THIS IS KEY

Having gender neutral restrooms so essential - accessible public restrooms can be difficult & dangerous for transfolx - public restrooms closed at nights deprive folks from essential services, parks closed during the day when domestic workers can use them are also a deprivation

Cann list down a million diff ways in which cities exclude womxn & still fall short in covering all - exclusion is at the root - best way to go about it is to apply feminist urban planning ideas + tools - local planning has to be bottom driven with womxn from diff backgrounds

feminist city needs public provision of essential services inc. childcare, reduce dependance on regressive familial + caste networks, men doing domestic work, so its not outsourced to womxn, esp womxn of lower class / caste, womxn loitering - the built env shapes social behaviour

A feminist, anticapitalist city focuses on pleasure, ensuring human dignity, promoting human development - allowing us to work little, experience leisure, fall in love - to sit by ponds, read poetry, get lost in public libraries, it's pollution free, democratic, has public space

We don't actually know what a feminist city really looks / feels like coz we're not a feminist society yet - our imagination is limited by our reality but there are conditions that can foster it - it starts with asking diff womxn what they need, what they want, what they'd like

Planning to ensure womxn to access edu, work, housing, sanitation, childcare, to wear whatever they want, to loiter, to fall in love with whoever, to have fun, to recognise the lack of access to the city as a deep violence in itself, a deprivation of the womxn's right to the city

Leaving a link to a video by my favourite feminist urbanist collective @CollectiuPunt6 explaining feminist urbanism in a brilliantly designed video, skip the rest of the thread but please watch this - 7 min - I promise you it will change your life

see this incredible thread on feminist imagination and the built environment, bless feminist geographers & urban sociologists, all these womxn doing critical & beautiful work, brb crying https://twitter.com/feminiscity/status/1289623316790034443?s=20