In Brief:
- Workforce deficit: Fewer than 10 percent of active architects and urban planners globally are women.
- Planning gaps: Standard municipal frameworks overlook gendered mobility patterns, public toilet access, and street lighting requirements.
- Policy initiative: UN-Habitat and UNOPS introduced the 'Cities 4 Women' framework across municipalities to incorporate women directly into urban budgeting and design.
Urban planning experts convened by UN-Habitat, UN Women, and international planning federations called for structural overhauls in municipal development to build gender-responsive cities. Presenting data at international urban forums, researchers noted that women constitute less than 10 percent of practicing urban planners and architects globally, resulting in city infrastructure that ignores the daily movement patterns, safety considerations, and public facility needs of women. Field studies highlighted specific structural deficits, including inadequate street lighting, unsafe public transport nodes, and a lack of gender-segregated sanitation facilities.
To address these imbalances, global agencies expanded the 'Cities 4 Women' and 'Her City' initiatives, requiring participating municipal authorities to include women in local planning committees and public budgeting. The projects deploy participatory tools to redesign public squares, transit hubs, and street markets based on direct input from women residents. Experts emphasized that integrating gender-disaggregated data into municipal governance is required to fix systemic accessibility gaps and ensure safer urban environments.
