Female Futures
Analysis of the potential threat of ‘patriarchal futures’ imposed on women through future city visualisations
Ruby Ellis | 170160690 Submitted for the Degree of BA Honours Architecture and Urban Planning School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Newcastle University 2019-2020
Acknowledgements I would like to offer thanks to my supervisor who has supoorted this research. I would also like to acknowledge and thank all the particpants in the focus group research and the rich resource they provided.
Abstract In a world where the future of the urban environment, which over half the population inhabits, continues to be designed and predicted by planners, authors, film directors and individuals, it is unsurprising that visualisations of these futures, projected through online platforms, do not always align with personal expectations. Through a study of three images projecting visions of future city designs this research assesses the impact of the visuals on the potential ability to guide the expectations of the young female demographic. It is presented by several authors in key literature that gender inequalities exist in public spaces due to traditional, arguably patriarchal, thinking in the design and decision-making process of urban construction. Research through focus group sessions with female participants, allowed for insightful discussions about city spaces from a feminine perspective and presented the opportunity for females to comment on and offer criticism for the three selected visuals. By analysing the different uses of a city space for females in comparison with the average male should be used to inform planning practice, however inequalities are still being reproduced. By identifying the cause of these inequalities and analysing the differences in requirements for women, this research proposes that visualisations of future city designs should be more carefully considered to prevent the risk of guiding individual expectations or causing inadvertent exclusion.
Figure 1: Viewing the World of Tomorrow (1939)
contents INTRODUCTION 2 1 Potential Futures 2 Predicting Futures 3 Past Futures 4 Visualised Futures LITERATURE REVIEW 5 1 ‘Birds-Eye’ Visions 2 It’s a way of ‘not thinking’ 3 Gender Data Gap 4 Biased Technology 5 Future Horizons and Science Fiction 6 Power of Visualisations 7 Research Question METHODOLOGY 17 1 Research Design 2 An Ethnographic Method 3 Friendship and Feminism in Research 4 Using imagery to support discussion 5 “Can-Openers” ANALYSIS 23 1 Focus Group 1 and 2 2 Busy-ness 3 Transport 4 After Dark 5 Hidden Perspectives 6 Data Gap 7 Guiding Expectations CONCLUSION 33
List of Figures
“ The result of deeply male-dominated culture is that the male experience, the male perspective, has come to be seen as universal, while the female experience – that of half the global population, after all – is seen as well, niche.” (Perez, 2019, p. 12)
Front Cover | Female Line Drawing; Authors own (2020) Figure 1 | Viewing the World of Tomorrow (1939); from A Visual History of the Future (2014) Figure 2 |Do we have any women here? (2003) ; from Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit RTPI (2003) Figure 3 | Le Corbusier, Radiant City (Ville Radieuse) 1924; from A Visual History of the Future (2014) Figure 4 | Flashback to the 50s and the Heroic Mums Protest; from The Villager (2017) Figure 5 | Simone de Beauvoir; from Encyclopaedia Britannica (2020) Figure 6 | Jane Jacobs; from The Guardian (2016) Figure 7 | Robert Moses; from The Guardian (2016) Figure 8 |Le Corbusier; from The Guardian (2014) Figure 9 | Invisible Women; from Invisible Women (2019) Figure 10 | Online Platforms; from Inadvertent Exclusion in Future Visions of Smart Cit ies (2019) Figure 11 | Metropolis; from A Visual History of the Future (2014) Figure 12 |New Clark City; from BCDA (2018) Figure 13 |Bosch Driverless Cars; from Automotive News (2017) Figure 14 | Toronto Waterways Development; from Sidewalk Labs (2020) Figure 15 |Jane Jacobs Protesting in 1964; from Becoming Jane Jacobs 2016 Figure 16 | Women and Transport; from Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit RTPI (2003) Figure 17 | Street Design Principles; from Sidewalk Labs (2020) Figure 18 | Streets at Night Collage; Authors Own (2020) Figure 19 | Street Lighting; Authors own (2020) Figure 20 | Washington Square Park Protest; from The Guardian (2016) Figure 21 | Gamma Tokyo 1985; from A Visual History of the Future (2014)
INTRODUCTION The UN reported in 2018 that 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion expected to increase to 68% by 2050 (United Nations, 2019, p. 9). This growth in urban areas, has posed challenges to urban planners attempting to design for these growing environments. Previously initiatives such as Ebenezer Howards garden city and Le Corbusier’s vertical living have been presented as solutions to urban growth. However, these concepts have become dwarfed by the insurgence of ‘smart cities’ (Joss, 2015), a concept that intends to offer efficiency to services and citizens creating a ‘hyper-functionality’ (Willis & Aurigi, 2017) to everyday life through “smart governance, smart energy, smart building, smart mobility, smart infrastructure, smart technology, smart healthcare and smart citizens” (Gurstein, 2014). ‘Smart Cities’ will develop an ‘anything, anytime, anyplace’ (Graham & Marvin, 1996) familiarity to all habitants of this new age.
ticularly for the younger generation. It has been widely researched that the effects of constant exposure to imagery can begin to influence individuals’ thoughts through ‘Print Capitalism’ (Appadurai, 1990, p. 2), a concept originally acknowledged in the 1990s, as a reflection on the control created by the mediascape (Appadurai, 1990, p. 4). Potential Futures | Constant exposure to futuristic images of potential futures (Husserl, 1973) are arguably guiding individual expectations and overshadowing the individual thoughts and projections of specific groups of society. This research will assess the impacts of future city imagery portrayal by looking closely at the female half of the population. Prior to modern planning there have been numerous imaginaries revolutionising the way we would live in cities. However, past planning concepts such as Le Corbusier’s 19th century attempt to organise civilisation through levels of activity (Graham, 1965), “suggest[ing] how people may live, work, and move … [when] constructed in reality the subtleties and joie de vivre are lost.” (Dunn, et al., 2014, p. 13). It is apparent that planners in the past (most often male) have attempted to implement a system they deem to be appropriate for urban systems in the predominantly developed world.
With this vision in mind, this research will look at the future of urban planning, using current visualisations of future city design as a tool for discussion and an anchor of analysis. In the contemporary context, imagery is everywhere; tv, social media, billboards etc, which has and continues to form a key means of communication, par1
It is “the tendency of every age to read the future as a fancier version of the present” (Schutz 1971).
Predicting Futures | Similar to the vertical living phenomenon of Le Corbusier (Graham, 1965), ensuring practicality and fluidity, was imperative to the planning philosophy of Robert Moses in in New York. However, Robert Moses was critiqued for his ‘birds-eye view’ in the 1980s when he was challenged by Jane Jacobs. Jacobs was an advocate for bottom-up initiatives, she watched and experienced local life to investigate and understand the intricate workings and different uses of city spaces. Planners, like Le Corbusier, are not the only ones attempting to predict and shape the future. This attempt to design imagery of a possible future can be in the Science Fiction genre (Sci-Fi) this attempt to design imagery of a possible future. Only recently has research shown that Sci-Fi visualisations and futuristic imagery in the media are sources of visualising and informing expectations (Akkawi, 2018). Since the beginning of
the 20th century, Sci-Fi and futuristic imagery has built on ideas of “imaginative paradigms” (Annas, 1978), an attempt to predict futures or alternative presents. Sci-Fi has previously been a genre dominated by the work of men, however lately women have begun to engage with writing science fiction and are beginning to depict and illustrate a more feminine perspective of the future (Annas, 1978). The prominence of Le Corbusier and Robert Moses in planning and the male-dominated production of sci-fi and arguably imagery suggests a representation of male futures, potentially influenced by patriarchy, notably ‘patriarchal futures’. Now, however, women are becoming more connected and involved with the future and challenging the imagery and expectations historically portrayed by males in both science fiction and past planning practice.
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Past Futures | The past can continue to be used to guide the present and help to inform the future. A striking illustration of ‘patriarchy v feminism’ is the conflict of Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. Using Jacobs’ actions in New York throughout this thesis will offer a guideline to understanding the importance of planning while taking into account each and every member of a community, and specifically that of the feminine population. Throughout the last 50 years feminism has fought to make cities a better place for everyone. For feminists working in the planning of future cities, such as Matrix; a women’s group combatting the “manmade environment” (Matrix, 1984), it is important that societal visions of the future are sculpted using a “gender lens” to incorporate and consider women in the urban setting. Arguably, it has been considered that planning practices, like those of Robert Moses, have been implemented by and designed for the “needs of a white, working-class male with little attention given to the other members of our community” (Matrix, 1984). Patriarchy is understood as male control and power through prominent roles of leadership (Engender, 2019), it also
refers to social privilege and moral authority (Jarvis, et al., 2009). Patriarchy is a social system and is arguably still influencing the contemporary world (Jacobs, 1961, p. 29). In the continuous application of paternalistic ideas to the construction of the urban has caused the less dominant groups of society to be forgotten or socially excluded (Rose, 2019). Many women find themselves living in a space that is not suitable to offer them “the basic spaces to act as a mother … or the safety to thrive as a young woman” (Matrix, 1984) as a result of patriarchy. Throughout the last century, however, the effort to refuse patriarchal thinking and to create spaces that are gender neutral has gained attention. In 2010, the conference for Building Inclusive Cities, held in New Delhi, highlighted the “need to work towards more equitable access to the opportunities cities can offer, regardless of age, gender, … or any other factor, for all city dwellers” (WICI & Jagori, 2010). Arguably, in some cases city planning and governance is re-adjusting to a gendered approach to design an environment to prevent women’s “invisibility” and create a cityscape without gender polarisation.
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Figure 2: Do we have any women here?
“Many of us are familiar with visualisations of future cities from mainstream media, popular culture… we are all able to read such images, even if we may have different interpretations of them” (Dunn, et al., 2014, p. 15). The influence of imagery on young females arguably threatens their individual thoughts, aspirations and expectations, specifically of the future.
At present, future images are arguably being forecasted in alliance with the ideas of the white-male. Therefore, this research aims to bring together the movement of gender conscious planning by realising female expectations and the overshadowing of these feminine reflections in the ignorant representations of future city design through three visualisations.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
and by men; and secondly to explore expectations for the future and current visualisations that project future urban designs. In order to reflect upon the impact of previous planning designs with typically male-dominated visions, this review will explore three key themes explored throughout the feminist literature: the birds-eye view concept (Jacobs, 1961); the public v private stereotypes (Terlinder, 2003); and the gender data gap (Perez, 2019). Subsequently, the evaluation will offer an insight into the theory of individual horizons (Schutz, 1971) presented by Alfred Schutz. Then Cathy O’Neil will provide a brief analysis of the sexist algorithms from which technology is developed. Research by Gillian Rose will then aid in determining the influences of visual imagery on an increasingly ‘hyper-visual’ society (Rose, 2014). Through understanding both of the key branches of analysis, it becomes apparent that the gap in research occurs in the connection between the literature on traditional patriarchal thinking creating exclusions for women in city planning and the research into the impacts of imposing visual imagery, offering ideas of future urban landscapes, based on societal expectations.
Figure 3: Le Corbusier, Radiant City (Ville Radieuse), 1924
The intention of the following literature review is to acknowledge significant thinkers along two key branches of analysis: firstly, collecting literature on female navigation of the urban spaces arguably designed for 5
Bird’s Eye Vision The design and planning of city landscapes has continually been reimagined and reconstructed by urban planners. Notably city planning has been influenced by Ebenezer Howards “Garden Cities of To-Morrow” (Badger, 2012), Le Corbusier’s attempt to combat overcrowding through a vertical style of living, known as “Towers in the Park” (Badger, 2012) and Robert Moses’ vision to design New York City around the increasing reliance on automobiles. However, each of these initiatives has been collectively criticised for having a “gap in perspective” (Perez, 2019, p. 32) due to their top down approach. To explore this top-down approach and ‘birds-eye view’, the struggle between the feminist, Jane Jacobs and the “white-male town planner” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 30) Robert Moses, is illustrated in Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities (hereafter The Death and Life). Robert Moses’, New York City’s Planning Commissioner, was described as a “utopian modernist architect” (Dunn, et al., 2014, p. 13). He fought against what he viewed as ‘dystopian chaos’ (NYC Department of Records and In6
formation Services, n.d.) and favoured the efficient movement of automobiles over that of human life (Jacobs, 1961, p. 242). Jane Jacobs, a local resident at the time, was greatly critical of Moses’ birds-eye vision, believing Moses to possess a typically male perspective and “essentially paternalistic, if not authoritarian” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 29) outlook. She says, “the trouble with paternalists is that they want to make impossibly profound changes, and they choose impossibly superficial means for doing so” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 270). Jacobs’s struggle against the patriarchal actions of Moses, was a ‘bottom-up approach’, which she recognised as the importance of community both for everyday life but also as a key informant for planning practise. The Death and Life recognises the different users and uses of space, and she notes that planners with a ‘birds-eye view’ plan “without knowing what sort of innate, functioning order it has” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 24). The phrase “eyes on the street” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 45) was used by Jacobs to describe safety on the street level, with her research especially accounting for the safety of women. The concept, she said, was that a “busy street is far safer than one that is deserted” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 44). ‘Eyes on
the street’ was a direct response to Moses’ attempt to systematise streets and create zones, separating residential areas, workplaces and services and thus disconnecting people and activity. The result of ‘stable, symmetrical and orderly spaces… attributes of a well-kept, dignified cemetery’ (Jacobs, 1958) creates a landscape deemed threatening to mothers and children. Like Jacobs, Edward Glaeser, author of the Triumph of the City argues “[cities] are proximity, density, closeness. They enable us to work and play together, and their success depends on the demand for physical connection” (Glaeser, 2011). Subsequently, a key theme to Jacobs’s work was “mixed use spaces” to ensure that streets were busy at all times of day, offering connection between business, friends and family and interaction between different neighbourhoods. ‘Eyes on the street’ was a summary of safety, connection and protection proving that a successful neighbourhood should be lively and busy.
as “a great visible ego”, no matter how ineffective the design (Jacobs, 1961, p. 33). Jacobs’s turmoil with Moses’s paternalistic vision came to a head when the proposal to construct a highway through Washington Square Park led Jacobs to bring women from the local community together to protest. She was able to demonstrate the intricacy (Jacobs, 1961, p. 112) and significance of the park for women and how they relied on public space in their neighbourhood differently to men. Jacobs’s critical analysis of the ‘birds-eye view’ is based upon the naivety of white male planners, and their lack of awareness for the reality of city life, discounting the key elements that make cities work for women.
It ’s a way of not thinking Jacobs’s work observes the lack of consideration of male planners as the source creating unsuccessful design for cities spaces. The top-down approach of patriarchy is argued by Caroline Perez, “as not generally malicious... it is simply a way of thinking that has been around for millennia and is … not thinking.” (Perez, 2019, p. xi). Additional sources have argued that patriarchal thought is programmed thinking
The “Progressive Zoners” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 33) have always sought to organise functions. Howard’s moving of residences into suburbs, Le Corbusier’s effort to organise vertically and Moses’s attempt to create zones in the city, are described by Jacobs 7
Figure 4: Flashback to the 50s and the Heroic Mums Protest
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experienced not only by males but also females (Terlinder, 2003, p. 10), because “the chronicles of the past have left little space for women” (Perez, 2019). Simone de Beauvoir author of The Second Sex, writes “representation of the world … is the work of men … from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth.” (Perez, 2019, p. xi). Perez, de Beauvoir and Jacobs all recognise engrained patriarchal thinking as a controlling element in the imagination of urban space design. Ull Terlinder author of City and Gender, builds on patriarchal control by linking the unconscious thinking (Perez, 2019) to the deep-rooted roles of ‘public’ and ‘private’ (Terlinder, 2003, p. 41). Terlinder documents the stereotype of the “private women” and the “public man” and its filtration into the organisation of society. Her study explores how, historically, the normative images of a male dominated space are so common in societal thinking that it was considered to be the case that women “couldn’t participate in city life without the accompaniment or permission of a man” (Terlinder 2003 p.41). Figure 5: Simone de Beauvoir Figure 6: Jane Jacobs
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Figure 7: Robert Moses Figure 8: Le Corbusier
Despite the force of feminism, the inequalities between men and women continue; “men are the default and women are a niche aberration” (Perez, 2019, p. 241). Perez uses transport in the city as an example to highlight women suffering from a ‘male bias’ (Perez, 2019, p. 32), as their lifestyle requirements differ from the lifestyles of the male designers. As a result, “trip chaining; a travel pattern of several small interconnected trips” (Perez, 2019, p. 30) commonly travelled by women serving as carers, mothers or house-workers, are forgotten. The transport networks do not cater sufficiently and instead are focused to the commuter routes. Additionally, Perez reflected that pedestrian streets are “considered not relevant for infrastructure policymaking” (Perez, 2019, p. 34); consequently these routeways are marginalised and forgotten, women often end up walking further (Perez, 2019). Terlinder found that it wasn’t until well into the 20th century that women became increasingly involved in society that some of these “barriers to urban life” (Terlinder 2003 p.55) began to be removed, but still women continue to challenge “the not thinking” (Perez, 2019, p. xi).
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Figure 9: Invisible Women
Gender Data Gap The cause of inadvertent exclusion in planning decisions is described by Perez as the “gender data gap” (Perez, 2019, p. xiii). Invisible Women, published in 2019 by Perez, focuses on this gap, the idea “of unthinking that conceives of humanity as almost exclusively male”. The concept, also referred to as a “gap in perspective” (Perez, 2019, p. 32) can be most clearly demonstrated by the underrepresentation of female positions in authority. For example, only 1/3 of local councillors in the UK are female (Engendered, 2019), contributing to the deficit in female consideration. Perez criticises the male domination in governments as having “‘naïve realism’ and ‘projection bias’ … people assume[ing] that their own way of thinking or doing things is typical” (Perez, 2019, p. 270). Blindness to the female perspective in planning “limits women’s liberty” (Perez, 2019, p. 313). Perez notes that data collection on women is overlooked because “women’s travel patterns are too messy, their work schedules aberrant … women are abnormal, atypical” (Perez, 2019, p. 314). The lack of research into women’s lives as they become overlooked by male 12
‘projection bias’ is the cause of the ‘gender data gap’, it is acknowledged by Jane Jacobs, and Engendered, that the benefit of female representation is that “women simply don’t forget that women exist as men often seem to” (Perez, 2019, p. 315).
Biased Technology There is increasing amounts of literature by Cathy O’Neil, Andrew Feenberg and others, compiling the argument that although the most visible impact of exclusion is created by the contemporary city design, it is rather the cause of biased technology, which is the foundation of future city designs as we progress towards smart cities. Cathy O’Neil presented an argument in her 2016 book Weapons of Math Destruction that the algorithms building data “separates people by sex, race, age and reinforces discrimination” (O’Neil, 2016). Perez also writes of male-biased technology in her analysis of the ‘gender data gap’. Perez describes the inequality as a “one-size-fitsmen” approach (Perez, 2019, p. 157) , she explains that the size of an iPhone is measured against the “reference man” (Perez, 2019, p. 158) and that car voice command systems listen to male tones more effectively then female (Perez, 2019, p. 162).
Future Horizons Cities have long been the subject of imaginative projections and aspirations for better futures (Dunn, et al., 2014, p. 13). According to Alfred Schutz, a philosopher and social phenomenologist, “(it is) the tendency of every age to read the future as a fancier version of the present” (Schutz 1971). Planners have continually redesigned cities and endeavoured to create utopian solutions. This is the case with the “smart city” concept which is set to revolutionise the future, described as a “hyper-functionality” (Willis & Aurigi, 2017), an “anything, anytime, anywhere” (Graham & Marvin, 1996) style of life. Pamela Annas argued in 1978 that the concept of technological advancements changing the way we live in cities has similarly been explored through the Sci-Fi genre (Annas, 1978). Since the beginning of the 20th century, science fiction and imagery has “built an imaginative paradigm” (Annas, 1978, p. 146), through literature and in cinema “entwining sci-fi and built environments … into a powerful interrelationship” (Dunn, et al., 2014, p. 30), evidence in films such as Ridley Scott’s (1982) Blade 13
Runner, a representation of “high-rise, three-dimensional mobilised societies … in Los Angeles” (Dunn, et al., 2014, p. 30). Six prominent sci-fi writers gathered their opinions on the relevance of sci-fi today, including Lauren Beukes, novelist and journalist, who thought that the genre “predicts the future of the world … [and] unpacks who we are in it” (Beukes, et al., 2017). They state that “science fiction can tell us… what kind of societies, what kind of lives, we are shaping” (Beukes, et al., 2017) and “science fiction stories … are a baseline for making sense of the world, and making it change,” that it is “the realism of our time” (Beukes, et al., 2017). This discussion concludes that sci-fi is “shape[ing] the rules of reality” (Beukes, et al., 2017) and presenting visions of possible futures. Edmund Husserl, a philosopher in the late 19th and early 20th century, described predictions and estimates of the future as “horizons” (Husserl, 1973). Both Husserl and Alfred Schutz discussed internal and external factors, that contributed to one’s outlook on the future. Schutz considered our personal “lifeworld’s” (Schutz, 1971); our nationality, culture, religion, background and so on, as the primary mould-
ing of our expectations. Husserl argued that individual expectations can be easily distorted or manipulated by “external horizons” (Husserl, 1973), alternative experiences and subsequent expectations. The prevalence of sci-fi has led Yuval Noah Harari, author of 21 Lessons in the 21st Century, to be quoted as saying “science fiction [is] playing a key role in shaping public opinion” (Wired, 2018). Similarly a recent article warned “ it is worth considering the influence of visuals and cinema on our futures… and how cautious we should be in how we consume and create it” (Akkawi, 2018).
through mainstream media cannot be overestimated” (Dunn, et al., 2014). Gillian Rose, a Cultural Geographer, has analysed promotional material produced by private planning corporations to promote future city design, and specifically the smart city model. Rose recognises through her research that most visual material is represented by the “young, able-bodied, white male” (Rose, 2019) and subsequently they show projections of city futures designed for males inadvertently excluding females. “The way we portray future visions of cities matters, and bad portrayals risk leaving people out” (Rose, 2019).
Power of Visualisations Research has begun to link the predictions of future city scenarios shown through visualisations such as in sci-fi, and the influence it has on individual and societal expectations. For this research, the visual imagery depicting future imaginaries of cities is the argued “external horizon” (Husserl, 1973). A government report in 2014 noted that “the power of visualisations of future cities and their ability to capture and remain in our imagination
Figure 10: Online Platfroms
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Additional studies by Rose and Alistair Willis have explored smart city imagery on social media platforms. They identify the contemporary importance of using imagery in the communication process with modern world (Rose & Willis, 2019), and particularly the young. However, they raise concerns of the increasing exposure to imagery through social media platforms as potentially acting to control wider societal expectations (Rose & Willis, 2019). This has been previously noted as ‘Print Capitalism’ by Benedict Anderson, a political scientist, who believed that unified understanding of language and imagery acts as control from the state (Anderson, 2006, p. 77). The publication of imagery, typically by state-controlled or male-led corporations are, argued by Rose and Willis, influenced by the not thinking of the dominant white middle-class male, and the visuals are forecasted in alliance with these ideas (Rose & Willis, 2019). As previously mentioned, Perez claimed that the not thinking of males is “not generally malicious, or even deliberate” (Perez, 2019, p. xi), but that in contemporary imagery production it appears that the not thinking is transformed into ‘print capitalism’ and as a result, Rose argues that portrayals of future imaginaries through this imagery, and promotional material is “inadvertently creating social exclusion” (Rose, 2019). 15
Research Question For this research, the importance of linking the literature of both branches of analysis, the forgotten females in cities and contemporary print capitalism, reveals the gap in research and subsequently informs the central question for this thesis. Are female expectations of futures imposed on us by the patriarchal
thinking of those who produce the imagery?
Figure 11: Metropolis
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METHODOLOGY Research Design The research layout consisted of two focus group sessions with eight participants, all of whom live and study in Newcastle. The sessions were conducted using three phases to support the structure of the discussions.
Phase 2: Images were presented one by one and participants were prompted to comment on initial thoughts and ideas about the image and the space in which it was showing.
Figure 12: New Clark City
Phase 1: Participants were asked to offer generalised comments on public urban spaces and discuss feelings of comfort or discomfort, personal behavioural habits and the different experiences in the day and at night.
Phase 3: During this phase, the participants were encouraged to remember their feminine viewpoint and re-consider and offer any further comments on the three images.
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Figure 13: Bosch Driverless Cars
Figure 14:Toronto Waterways Development
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the researcher” (Owton & Allen-Collinson, 2013) in order to avoid the bias of personal involvement. Ethnographic research, however, allows for a change from studying “them” to studying “us” (Tillman-Healy, 2003, p. 729). For this research placing myself among the researched helped to facilitate focus group discussions without sculpting opinions. Previously, research has been dominated by thinking that “separates the scientist from the phenomenon under study” (Reinharz, 1992, p. 46). Some of the former social research of the female perspective in society has been completed by men, who are often influenced by patriarchy and the power imbalance experienced by the dominant male and the passive female. Subsequently there are concerns that in previous research the representation of females opinion have been skewed by the inability of the male researcher to remain detached from patriarchal bias.
An Ethnographic Research The act of researching as a woman and with women, is described by Joyce Nielsen as “contextual, inclusive, … involved, socially relevant,… open to the environment and inclusive of emotions and events as experience” (Nielsen, 1990, p. 6). It was important for this research with women that an inclusive and honest approach was taken in order to gain detailed and holistic responses from a demographic previously under-researched. Using an ethnographic approach enabled me, as the researcher “to start from one’s own experience” (Reinharz, 1992, p. 259) as personal understanding and experience has led to this research exploration and will continue to lead this thesis. In recognising a reflexive positioning within the research, it then became apparent that using friendship as method offered a way to research allowing for more in-depth discussions and “emotional involvement and emotional reflexivity …[to provide] a rich resource” (Owton & Allen-Collinson, 2013). Selecting friends to research with aided in determining the methodologies. Focus groups using a semi-structured interviewing style, “enables a researcher to understand how individuals think or act in social settings” (Cyr, 2019, p. 18). Research needs “to be disconnected from
Using friendship as an ethnographic research method eliminates the time spent “getting to know” the researched and can allow for the previously established friendship connections to create a more open, multi-voiced and emotionally rich inquiry. Similarly focus groups, while they have been criticised for creating an environment that could be considered “uncomfortable or suppressive” 19
(Bryman, 2016, p. 518), allow for detailed iscussion of a topic, and interaction between participants can shape and balance a debate (Bryman, 2016, p. 501). In order to achieve non-biased, multi-faceted comments from a young female demographic, a focus group format with friends was a fitting approach that promoted open and detailed discussions.
Figure 15:Jane Jacobs Protesting in 1964
Acknowledging that one’s personal experiences and values will impact the research and that “value neutrality is a myth and attempts to mitigate bias” (Lumsden, 2012, p. 5), feminist ethnographic research embraces personal involvement as a valuable asset for exploration (Reinharz, 1992, p. 258). This inquiry has been derived from personal consideration and therefore intends to offer personal reflexivity throughout the research in order to use my emotional involvement as a rich resource of detailed insight (Owton & Allen-Collinson, 2013) and enable connection between myself and the researched. Positioning myself among the inquiry challenges the power imbalance and allows natural dialogues ‘in the ebb and flow of everyday life’ (Tillman-Healy, 2003, p. 731) and offers more personal and intricate perspectives. 20
Using Imagery to support discussion
Figure 16:Women and Transport
Visual methodologies are beginning to be recognised in ethnographic research ‘as a documenting tool, a form of interrogation’ (Pink, 2005). Recognised as ‘representations of the objective world’ (Prosser, 2005) images have ‘spanned the evolution of humankind … drawings and photographs’ (Prosser, 2005). Visualisation elicitation techniques use stimuli to open and guide conversation, a technique that “enhances participants’ ability to elaborate on their own conceptions … rather than limiting them to … theory or previous research” (Barton, 2015). Visual elicitation is a “can-opener” technique for discussion (Cederholm, 2011, p. 92) that was used in this research to connect with a group of young females living in an increasingly ‘hyper visual’ culture (Rose, 2014). By acknowledging my subjectivity, engaging in a reflection of my personal exposure to the visualisations of future city designs through education, the following images were selected from online news and social media to use as an anchor for the focus group discussions. The focus group format allowed for discussion to happen naturally and the three phases, including the visualisation elicitation helped to guide the discussion to create more indepth and focused responses to the research.
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. Image 1: New Clark City I interpret this image as a typical visualisation of a future city. New Clark City is a ‘city from scratch’ (Shephard, 2019) in the Philippines. This development is “building for people” (Bracher, 2018), however the Philippines is a culture where “women [have] a more traditional outlook on gender roles” (Demanarig & Acosta, 2016) and as a result the design process may suffer from male bias.
“Can - Opener ” Images
Image 2: Bosch This image was first presented to me during a discussion about driverless cars and their impact on urban spaces. Bosch presented this image as a technology enhanced environment that one might find in a smart city future. Image 3: Sidewalk Labs Side Walk Labs an urban design firm working on the waterfront in Toronto, is ‘reimaging cities to improve quality of life’ (Sidewalk Labs, 2020) with their use of innovative ideas focusing on “mobility, public realm, sustainability, social infrastructure and digital innovation” (Sidewalk Labs, 2019). The imagery used by Sidewalk Labs, has already been critiqued as “typically simplistic, with child-like round edges and bright colours … where people are treated like infants … cute icons of urban life” (Koolhass, 2014). As a result I was interested in including this image in the research to investigate whether the same opinion was discussed. 22
ANALYSIS
Figure 17:Street Design Principles
ease and personal experiences and reflections were offered on the city environment in the day and at night time. Discussing the city after dark raised concerns of personal safety and vulnerability, with members of the group talking about certain times when they have felt vulnerable, often when they are travelling late at night on public transport or walking home through residential streets. One participant revealed, “I think I’m fearless, but when I leave work at 11pm, I have to go through an industrial area … there’s no one about at night”. Similar comments arose during this conversation with another participant saying, “I’m not too bothered about the centre, because its light from all the shop fronts and streetlights, it’s the streets near my house that are darker, that’s what I don’t like”. Thoughts of bad lighting, empty streets and the “eeriness of residential streets” were echoed by the other participants. All agreed that cities, both at night and in the day, offered occurrences of feelings of vulnerability.
Focus Group 1 A welcoming exchange gave way to a settled and familiar atmosphere for the first focus group. To begin the discussion the participants were asked to consider reflections and experiences of everyday life in their city environment. The group dynamics, as a gathering of friends, enabled the conversation to start and continue with
Newcastle city centre was determined as an urban space familiar with all participants. As a result, when discussing ‘top priorities’ in designing a good city, specific spaces in Newcastle centre were discussed, including Northumberland Street and Bigg Market. Key themes such as ‘green spaces’, ‘safety’ and ‘good transport options’ were the predominant topics of conversa-
The comments collected from the focus group indicate that public urban spaces, from the perspective of a female, were used as a place for social life, performing errands and entertainment. Despite after dark arousing feelings of vulnerability and fear, the city landscape was an obligatory part of female life. The discussion stemmed from the imagery was able to further expand on these topics and acted as a tool for gaining depth into the understanding of each group members individual perspectives and aspirations for future city design.
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tion and the participants expressed interest in more public transport options and also services that would run later into the night. One participant added, “I get annoyed when you can’t get public transport after 11pm, what are we meant to do … walk back, or get a taxi”. For other members of the group, the requirement for more green or recreational spaces was key to good city design, it was mentioned that “areas of park just make me happy, I love walking through them, or meeting friends there”. Another participant described her experiences with her younger sister (aged 4) in the city, explaining that “children love parks, and they can run around with no worry of the roads. For me when I’m with my sister I always go to the green spaces, because I know they are generally safe”.
options, the cleanliness and that “the images look generally quite nice and organised, I think I would live in that city”. Phase 3 of the focus groups was prompting the participants to remember their female perspective and reconsider the images. The first focus group focused on the image generated by Side Walk Labs and provided more critical comments. The group scrutinised the visualisation, and almost immediately two participants noticed the absence of street lighting, “I can’t believe it, we just had a big discussion about how much streetlights make a difference for safety and then in this image there are none.” Additional analysis revealed the groups annoyance at all the different levels of pavement, “I can’t imagine being with my sister … and dealing with a buggy on all those levels”. There were also concerns raised over the unprotected water area with no barriers for safety. During this discussion it became evident that the focus group approach meant that the participants were able to successfully interact with one another and pose opportunity for discussion and debate. Near the end of the discussion, one focus group member acknowledged that she “would never wear skirts or dresses, there are so many different levels, and also that big glass window that looks like an office, you’d be able to see straight up from the street below”.
Presenting the images after this initial exchange of reflections and comments, was an effective way developing these conversations. For some, the initial response to the images was positive, comments included, “I like the colours, it looks so bright and fun”, and “it looks quite techy… all posh and smart.” While others were more critical, firstly commenting that “it looks so busy and crowded” in one image but “deserted and sterile” in another. Despite the criticism, the generalized conversation was optimistic and certain elements were pointed out, such as the mixed transport 24
Focus Group 2 The second focus group had similar preliminary discussions about the city landscape, it was acknowledged that the city spaces at night time could be intimidating. However one participant did mention that “maybe we are just influenced by others and what we think we should feel like … I am fairly confident and most of the time, even at night I feel fine and not scared”. In response one female said, “maybe it’s the place and the darkness combined with the news reports you hear that makes you think it should be threatening”, “that’s true … I feel more alert … after hearing a bad news report”. Using friendship as method here enabled a better connection between the researcher and the researched and as a result we were able to ‘share deeper, more intricate perspectives of self ’ (Tillman-Healy, 2003), without participants feeling wary of their personal opinions.
“modern buildings have always got lots going on … like pillars and porches which are hard to navigate … [also] there is often landscaping outside, and it’s all very pretty, but in reality you end up walking extra far because the paths are not direct … it can be annoying”. The themes of good design discussed in the second focus group align with the comments of the first focus group and also with the findings of Jacobs, Perez and Terlinder which will be discussed in further chapters. The visual elicitation stemmed remarks of “futuristic, like something out of a film”, “it’s so idyllic and the city looks quite calm and tranquil” and “I like all the greenery”. General analysis of each image corresponded with the discussion of the first focus group even when asked to re-consider the images from a female perspective. This group were initially slow to criticise and looking more in depth at the Bosch driverless cars image they observed the positive elements of the mixed-use transport options, and “obvious cycle lanes” as well as the wide pavements and green parks. Soon, however, one member noticed that they couldn’t see any buggies which led to a discussion of the human representation in the images which led to further critical comments “lots of the men are in suits” and “the children are only in the park area”.
Discussion was moved to key priorities for designing a good public space. Initially generalised comments on “nice architecture”, “good transport routes and options”, “green spaces and parks” and “the provision of street lighting” were debated. Through the natural interaction of the group, more detailed comments began to arise, for example during the discussion about nice architecture and aesthetically pleasing places, it was commented that 25
Figure 18:Streets at Night Collage
Figure 19:Street Lighting Sketch
Gradually it became apparent that the image was not an even representation of where people spend their time and instead came across very stereotypical in its placement of people in the image. It brings into question Gillian Rose’s research on ‘inadvertent exclusion’, challenging how females envisage themselves in future cities if the imagery projecting the future does not take into account their representation and positioning in city life.
The presented findings from the focus group research illustrate the ways in which women view cities, and how their experiences compare with those of their male counterparts. The predominantly male-led design for future cities that is being presented in futuristic advertisement visuals, including the three images used in the research, is overshadowing female needs and arguably guiding their expectations and opinions. The primary research has revealed the power of the future city visualisations in arguably overlooking the female perspective and conforming young women to male thinking. This is arguably a result of the ‘gender data gap’ caused by a lack of sufficient engagement with women, and consideration in understanding the functions of city spaces. The following critical analysis will henceforth sculpt the argument that the imagery is not only over-looking females but also putting future design ideas into society as normal, non-disputable imaginaries.
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Busy-ness
Transport
Jane Jacobs’ findings illuminates how cities should operate and how they work best for women, children, the elderly and men. The members of the focus group, having no prior knowledge of Jane Jacobs’ work, easily picked out some of her key priorities when considering design that includes women. There were comments made about places being busy and how “having people around makes the space less threatening”. Jacobs is an advocate of busy-ness, her arguments in The Death and Life, refer to the idea of mixed-use spaces and active neighbourhoods. Alison and Perter Smithson, British architects in the mid 20th century, “argued that different activities should be combined within the same areas to promote belonging and neighbourliness.” (Dunn, et al., 2014, p. 107). Jacobs explains that the availability of mixed-use places ensures “the presence of people who go outdoors on different schedules and are in the place for different purposes” (Jacobs, 1961, p. 164). This busy-ness links with Jacobs ‘eyes on the street’ concept, which the focus groups supported: “more people make a place seem safer, that’s why I feel comfortable in the city centre, people are just going about all their individual agendas, while all being together”.
A key aspect of discussion during both the focus groups considered the provision of public transport services to different places and also running for longer into the night. Perez discusses the need for more complicated city routes, to cater for the females travel patterns, termed as “trip chaining” habits (Perez, 2019, p. 30). Public transport routes are often not appropriate for anyone, largely women who visit multiple places in the inner city every day, and instead in the focus groups it was determined that “walking is the quickest and most convenient transport most of the time”. Looking at the images there was not always an equal representation of mixed transport provision and despite the “obviously marked bicycle lanes and good wide pavements” the methods are mixed, busy and in the Side Walk Labs image “messy and chaotic”. The requirement for suitable and versatile transport routes are fundamental to ensure convenience and efficiency for females, while ensuring safety. It was picked up on in the focus groups that the pavements were messy creating a chaotic and potentially dangerous environment. During the focus group, concerns were also raised about the driverless cars portrayed in the Bosch image, with one 28
participant commenting “I don’t like to get into taxis with strangers, let alone into a car that isn’t controlled by a human”. Driverless cars have been criticised by numerous researchers such as Perez who believes that development is being led by big corporate investment companies, which are often dominated by men. Arguably in the press, it is often male entrepreneurs presenting their revolutionary ideas and utopian ideologies for future city design. Perez considers male entrepreneurs to be “more likely to be given funding … and are … likely to develop technology that helps men” (Perez, 2019, p. 289).
(Whitzman, 2007). Darkness creates a more threatening atmosphere and it explains a female’s need for and awareness of street lighting - both groups commented on the lack of street lamps in all three images. It was determined that men do no experience the threatening nature of darkness and therefore it becomes a “certain female need that men won’t think to cater for because it relates to experiences that men simply don’t have” (Perez, 2019, p. 170). The overlooking of experiences because they are not your own links to the research by Jacobs and Perez that highlights the lack of consideration for females and the oblivious thinking experienced by men when designing urban spaces. Without noticing a female’s needs, cities will continue to fail to fully address the needs of half the population and design spaces that are supposed to revolutionise the way we live but instead further add to marginalising of women.
After Dark During both focus groups, a prominent conversation topic was concerns at night time. One participant said she felt “agitated when alone, I feel vulnerable like when its dark, and I have this idea that at night time there are more threatening people about, I think because darkness makes it spooky”. This opinion was echoed by others in the research who similarly mentioned feelings of nervousness, vulnerability, and cautiousness. It is common for women to feel more vulnerable after dark, “women, far more than men, report that they avoid certain public spaces after dark … they calculate their risk, and their worry, as ‘high’”
Figure 20:Washington Sqaure Park Protest
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cussions became more critical, drawing on elements of safety and equal representation of the population in the images. This requirement for a prompt reveals how the male thinking is not “malicious or even deliberate” (Perez, 2019, p. xi) but instead a part of societal thinking that is inadvertently controlling perspectives and expectations, and that arguably is creating and will continue to create the inequalities experienced by women in our urban spaces.
Hidden Perspectives Simone de Beauvoir recognises the dominance of the male outlook when he comments that “a man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex; it goes without saying that he is a man’ (Beauvoir, et al., 2011). De Beauvoir identifies the male as the leading sex and thus the female as the other (Beauvoir, et al., 2011). This impression is not restricted to just the classification of sex; the acceptance of male as dominant is affecting all elements of life, including that of the construction of cities. “When you say man, you include women. Everyone knows that.” (Perez, 2019, p. 314). Perez features in Invisible Women that the ‘not thinking’ occurrence begins with rooted patriarchal thinking of all members of society, but more so in men. It is a way of thinking that favours the male demographic and therefore men become blind to the implications caused by patriarchy. As seen in the research findings, the images presented impressed both focus groups who appreciated their “shininess” and futuristic design. However, they did not notice that they surrendered their critical female perspective and conceded to accept the images as almost factual thus conforming to patriarchal thinking. When prompted to remember their female viewpoint, dis-
Data Gap “Women are just too complicated to measure … women’s travel patterns are too messy, their work schedules are too aberrant, their voices are too high” (Perez, 2019, p. 314). Perez uses positions of power to illustrate the impact of including women representation and how the current deficit of women in governments and councils is the ‘not thinking’ causing planning practices to reproduce inequalities. In the focus groups, it was not explicitly mentioned but it became clear that none of the participants had previously been involved in conversations about future city planning, far less vocally engaged in discussions with future city visuals. Perez, Jacobs and Engendered all identify the importance of female participation in all spheres of life “women do not get forgotten …female lives 30
and perspectives get brought out of the shadows” (Perez, 2019, p. 318), which was the intention of the focus group methodology in this research. Data gaps in research and in representation are notably creating the inequalities. In a discussion with Paul Cowie, a research fellow at Future Cities Catapult, he observed female representation in the workplace as only the starting point to including women. Cowie concluded that although “women are in the room; are they being heard?”. Arguably women act with professionalism that creates a similar behaviour to the oppressive nature of patriarchy, women in planning practice become professional first and human second.
ised experiences” will be targeting them at the male portion of society and subjecting females to inadvertent exclusion. One example is voice recognition that is designed using a male voice and thus recognises deeper tones more clearly than the high pitched tones of a female, something that has been evident in car navigation systems (Perez, 2019, p. 162). It becomes unfair for women to participate in city life when that city is not designed for them, and although the male bias is not being intentionally exclusive, male planners fail to recognise the huge implications this can have on a female’s opportunities to successfully partake in everyday life.
Also contributing to the data gap is the biased production of data algorithms underpinning smart design in cities, as argued by Perez and O’Neil. Data algorithms producing new smart technology for use in city spaces are aligned to the average male; the temperature norms set in offices, male heights used as a reference for shelf heights (Perez, 2019, p. xi). A design feature of Side Walk Labs is the inclusion of smart technology to enhance street users experience by providing personalised communication and up to date information of transport, air quality, weather etc. The idea is to increase efficiency and safety for society, but the male orientated algorithms, arguably disrupt these “personal-
This exploration has so far considered the female perspective and her experience of the city, and how these differ from the day to day experiences of males as the dominant gender and, arguably, recognised as the leading perspective in planning practices (Rose, 2019). The preceding argument has described that the over-powering role of the male psyche and patriarchal thinking on city design has been founded due to an engrained not thinking (Perez, 2019), in order to diminish this discrimination, it is important to involve women in research and increase representation in positions of power. The following analysis will investigate the guiding ability of ‘not 31
thinking’ on expectations, and the critical moment in the focus groups when there was a change in perspectives, illustrating the struggle between feminism and patriarchy.
truth” (Beauvoir, et al., 2011). As a result, the critical feminine perspective is perhaps overshadowed by the “slick and shininess” of the imagery (Rose & Willis, 2019).
Guiding Expectations
Using imagery as an anchor for discussion during the research focus groups was appropriate for the age group of participants because young females are experiencing constant exposure to imagery, including through social media platforms, billboards and television. As explored in the literature review, visualisations such as science fiction present “imaginative paradigms” (Annas, 1978) and explore possible expected futures and are able to guide and inform societal thinking. Presenting the three images in the focus group research attracted the response of fascination, the participants were in agreement that the images were “impressive”, that they portrayed a “perfect looking space”. Arguably these comments during the focus group demonstrate this idea of visualisations being produced by male-led groups and influencing personal reflections. The constant exposure to imagery in the modern world is acting as a form of communication and expression and as a result, consumers abilities to question or be critical of imagery is reduced. The removal of this critical barrier results in imagery being absorbed by society without question.
Personal reflections following the focus group concentrated on the moment of realisation among the participants when they looked at the images differently and used their feminine outlook to take a more critical stance. These moments aid in explaining the automatic vision that all members of society adopt, which is arguably the patriarchal thinking of the male demographic. The result of this thinking influences the production of future city visuals, and arguably impacts female perspectives. It is possible that females who are disconnected from planning have a limited understanding of city design and planning practices, but as the focus groups were able to identify, personal experiences and everyday exposure to city life inform opinions on city designs. The effects of visualisations, as shown in the research, is that despite personal preferences and experiences of the city, visualisations can be perceived as factual representations, “representations of the world … is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which is confused with the absolute 32
Figure 21: Gamma Tokyo 1985
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From exploring Jane Jacobs efforts in 1950s America, to Caroline Perez’s recent research published in Britain in 2019 and combining this with the primary research conducted for this exploration into the overshadowing of female expectations, it is apparent that urban planning still creates struggles for females in cities globally. Previously concerns of patriarchy have been the leading influence of female inclusion in the city, but lately the increasing exposure of misrepresented future city visualisations could also arguably be contributing to the reproduction of inequalities. This dissertation has attempted to explain and the identify the gap in literature; bringing together the criticism of gender inequalities produced in the urban environment and how these are reproduced through patriarchal thinking, and in particular through visualisations. In modern planning practice it is recognised that “to bolster competitiveness, city governance must become more ‘creative’” (Gerhard, et al., 2017, p. 3) which is leading to the adoption of the ‘smart city’ concept; using technology to systemise and automate city structure and systems. The term ‘smart city’ has only recently been used to describe new city design however the concept of systemisation and efficiency have long been the philosophy of many previous planners, like Robert Mo-
Conclusion ses and Le Corbusier, both of whom have created plans to revolutionise the urban. However, what both planners arguably failed to understand is the complex functioning of public spaces, neighbourhoods, residential areas and the relationship of functions in the wider city context. A city cannot be progressively planned by looking at it from the sky, to appreciate the intricacies of neighbourhood relationships, the complexity of travel patterns and the emotional connection to place, planning must start from its users, those who inhabit the city, use the city and visit the city. Jane Jacobs understood the importance of localised understanding, her book The Death and Life is based on personal experience from being a New York citizen and from observing her neighbourhoods’ goings-on. Her thoughts on eyes-on-thestreet, mixed-use spaces and busy-ness all stem from understanding people’s behaviours and actions and how the city functions for each individual. A believer in ‘organised chaos’, Jacobs recognises the messiness of life and that attempting to control and systemise city life through utopian design is not possible and instead further adds to marginalisation. 34
In particular Jacobs observations distinguish the female and her needs and requirements in comparison to her male counterparts. It is not only Jacobs that has researched this difference, but also Ull Terlinder author of City and Gender. She identifies the woman as the ‘private’ and the male as the ‘public’ by relating the stereotypical roles of each gender to their functions in the city space and the resulting divide created through male orientated urban design and the female orientated domestic realm. Traditional stereotypes are an element of patriarchal thinking, the idea that the male is the ‘working man’ and ‘superior gender’, a thinking that is prevalent in the design and control of contemporary societies. Terlinder describes public space as being “overlaid with male connotations” (Terlinder, 2003, p. 10) an idea also explored in Caroline Perez’s work. Perez argues that “whiteness and maleness are implicit. They are unquestioned. They are default” (Perez, 2019, p. 23). Perez’s debates that women are invisible in all spheres of life, although her work is not specifically addressing the work of urban planning her discussion mentions women in urban life, with reference to transport provision and public spaces. All these feminist authors recognise that urban environments have been designed with a male-bias due to traditional beliefs in patriarchy and stereotypes. Despite studying through three dif-
ferent time periods Jacobs, Terlinder and Perez are able to demonstrate, with examples, the effects of this control continually excluding women from public life. The studies by these feminist authors inspired this exploration and have hence been the narrative of analysis for this research.
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Through the primary research and literature collection an argument has developed for an increased requirement for female inclusion in planning and representation in positions of power, namely government councils and planning bodies. Placing women in these decision making roles has been recently discussed by Engendered as a way of eliminating the overshadowing of female perspectives and place women in a position to challenge the “decisions which exclude women in the interest of simplicity” (Perez, 2019, p. 241) and instead create spaces that are more ‘gender neutral’. The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) released a Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit in 2004 to act as a guide for planners in order to ensure that planning decisions were made with more consideration of the female demographic. The toolkit encourages a more considerate approach when creating and implementing planning policy. However, this toolkit, arguably acts as a ‘tick in a box’ rather than understanding the real benefits and implications of the policy on all members of the community.
An understanding that can only be developed through community submergent and engagement, an approach highlighted in all literature resources. The ‘toolkit’ produced by the RTPI could be criticised as an ineffective structured approach to a messy and complicated subject.
The reproduction of gender inequalities in urban planning is creating exclusion and as the discussion has developed these are reproduced in city design through traditional, arguably patriarchal, thinking in planning practise. The designing and imagining of future city environments are currently presented in visualisations and within the sci-fi genre and are also inevitably influenced by this patriarchal thinking, therefore projecting concepts that are designed with a male bias. The endless circulation of imagery, on modern online platforms, produces a societal blindness and as a result visualisations of city futures are arguably unconsciously absorbed as unquestionable fact. However, when given the opportunity women can be critical and often offer different perspectives and ideas for future city design.
Despite criticism of the RTPI toolkit it is evident that changes in planning practice policy is attempting to become gender streamlined in acknowledging the existing imbalances. However, the imagery discussed in this research are often created without a gender streamlining toolkit and are regularly produced by private planning corporations. This research does not intend to claim that future city visualisations are intentionally representing gender imbalance, but rather that the three images presented are arguably, inadvertently excluding women. The focus groups have demonstrated the effects of automatic male perspective and how this differs from the female perspective. For a female, her experiences of using and operating within the city’s public spaces can vastly differ from those of a male, “this is due to pre-existing gender inequalities that dictate patterns of movement, the use of different public services and buildings, and participation in public and domestic spheres” (Engender, 2019).
As we progress into the future it is important that future city design continues to strive for gender neutrality and to prevent the inadvertent exclusion produced in imagery more consideration should be given to visual design to ensure that individual aspirations for the future are not guided by a male-biased thinking.
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