Planning schemes still lack woman’s touch

The study, which will be presented to the Royal Geographical Society's annual conference in London, says that the Gender Equality Duty, introduced in 2007, is still being ignored by the vast majority of town and community planners.

As a result, it argues, many people - usually women - are being left at a disadvantage because the layout of their local community takes no account of the different ways in which they use public space compared with men.

Although researchers did find some cases - in London, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire - where gender was being taken into account, the report says that such efforts have, to date, been few and far between.

In far more cases, councils are struggling to factor in the different needs of men and women when they review their service provision or introduce new policies. One local authority officer who was interviewed for the research said: "Gender has been last in people's response to the equality agenda. Race has been emphasised more and for longer".

Planning projects and urban regeneration schemes have traditionally catered to men far more effectively than they have to women. For example, women often have to travel from home to drop the children off at school, then go to work, then do the shopping before returning. Men, by contrast, tend to travel from home to work and back. If schools and shopping outlets are located far away from most people's places of work, therefore, women's working opportunities become much more restricted.

Similarly, women tend to be far more reliant on public transport. Previous studies have shown that 75% of bus journeys are undertaken by women and only 30% of women have access to a car during the day. Without good public transport connections, women's working and living opportunities are likewise limited.

Introduced in April 2007, the Gender Equality Duty aims to resolve the problem by requiring public authorities to promote gender equality and remove gender discrimination. Among other things, that means that planners involved in urban regeneration projects or community planning schemes are now expected to show how they have taken into account the different impacts of their projects on men and women.

The Cambridge research finds few local authorities have seriously begun to implement those measures, however. Many local authorities "have not yet managed to engage with the real implications of the legislation," the report says. Gender equality schemes are not yet in place and gender impact assessments have not been completed.

"Gender is still a relatively 'new' consideration for planners and local authorities," Dr Gemma Burgess, from the University of Cambridge Centre for Housing Research, said. "There is still a long way to go before the real potential for change afforded by the Gender Equality Duty will be realised."

The researchers found that most local authorities had found it easier to consider gender equality within their own organisation - but that few were taking gender into account when drafting new policies and schemes. Council officers interviewed during the course of the study also described a lack of interest and even a degree of hostility from colleagues when they returned from gender equality training.

"In local authorities that have been more proactive and engaged, it is the result of one or two passionate individuals or senior women in management roles in the council who have been driving the efforts," the report adds.

The study did find some examples of good practice. In the London Borough of Lewisham, for example, council officers have introduced new mechanisms to assess gender equality in their development and planning schemes. As a result, Lewisham has changed its approach to where new business developments are zoned in an effort to reduce long-distance commuting and to ensure that women have more jobs available close to where they live.

Another local authority, in South Yorkshire, even recruited a group of women to go on a "walkabout" around the community with designers. Their views were then written into new planning briefs.

Such cases are, however, "not the norm", the report says. For the Gender Equality Duty to have more effect, it argues, gender needs should receive "corporate backing" from across a local authority to prevent actions from being taken by only a handful of interested individuals. The study adds that more advice and training is needed to give planners and regeneration practitioners information about how to turn the requirements of the new legislation into practical action.

The report is part of an ongoing research project at the Cambridge University Centre for Housing and Planning Research to assess the degree to which gender is being taken into consideration in regeneration schemes and planning. The Centre is based within the Department of Land Economy.