Planning for a Feminist City

Planning for a Feminist City

Author: Samuel Stafford March 8, 2023 Duration: 1:33:32

Spatial planning can only deliver a safe, healthy and sustainable environment for all if it is sensitive to the needs of all, which means taking into account the different roles women and men have in society and the different expectations and requirements they have from the planning system.

Nobody could argue with that principle, but what does it mean in practice? What does planning policy look like when viewed through a gender lens, how do we plan on a gender inclusive basis at a city-wide scale and what does that look like on the ground?

This episode has been put together by Sam Stafford (@samuel_stafford) with the help of Women in Planning (@womeninplanning) and the Royal Town Planning Institute to mark International Women's Day. It is comprised of three parts that will tackle those questions by way of three separate conversations.

In Part 1 you will hear Shelly Rouse (@rouse_shelly) talk to Karen Horwood (@karenhhorwood) and Natalya Palit (@natpalit) about women in planning, woman and planning and gender mainstreaming.

In Part 2 you will hear Phoebe Threlfall and Katie Shoosmith (@KFluzza) talk to Holly Bruce (@cllrhollybruce) about Holly’s ambition to make Glasgow a Feminist City.

And in Part 3 you will hear Vicky Payne (@Victoria_Payne) talk to Imogen Clark, Helen Fadipe (@hfadipe) and Katie Wray (@kluw) about making space for girls. At the end of that segment you can also look forward to Vicky getting on the 50 Shades soapbox.

Some accompanying reading.

Make Space For Girls' Research Report 2023

https://www.makespaceforgirls.co.uk/resources/research-report-2023

RTPI Material:

Feminist City - Claiming Space in a Man-made World, by Leslie Kern

https://www.versobooks.com/books/3842-feminist-city

The substantive and descriptive representation of women in planning: analysis from practice and academia

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/tpr.2022.12

Gender mainstreaming in urban planning: What can the UK learn from Vienna with regards to adopting a gender mainstreaming approach to shape built outcomes?

https://www.rtpi.org.uk/media/4471/george-pepler-report_200301_final.pdf

World Bank Gender Inclusive Urban Planning and Design-

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/publication/handbook-for-gender-inclusive-urban-planning-and-design

Women-Friendly Urban Planning Toolkit

https://www.citiesalliance.org/resources/publications/cities-alliance-knowledge/women-friendly-urban-planning-toolkit#:~:text=Cities%20Alliance%20is%20launching%20the,and%20voices%20in%20urban%20planning

Some accompanying viewing

What would a city designed by women be like?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-50269778

What is a feminist city and where in the UK is becoming one?

https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-28/how-does-a-place-become-the-uks-first-feminist-city

Some accompanying listening

The Visible Women Podcast with Caroline Criado Perez

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/visible-women-with-caroline-criado-perez/id1627229311

A Leeds Beckett podcast in which Karen considers how we can plan towns and cities better for women and girls.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/we-inspire-2-sustainable-cities/id1547786504?i=1000550421074

Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill (Shelly's choice)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0oeqAQ1qE8

50 Shades T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast you will have heard Clive Betts say that...

'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.

Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html


Samuel Stafford hosts 50 Shades of Planning, a podcast that digs into the often perplexing world of the English planning system. Rather than offering dry policy lectures, these conversations embrace the sector's inherent complexities and occasional absurdities. The aim is to provide a wide-ranging view, bringing in diverse voices from across the fields of planning, property, design, and development. You'll hear from practitioners, thinkers, and critics, each sharing their unique experiences and perspectives on how places are shaped. A recurring series within the podcast, titled 'Hitting The High Notes', features in-depth discussions with leading figures, examining pivotal career moments and influential projects. These talks are structured around six key planning milestones, offering a concrete framework for understanding professional journeys and systemic challenges. By weaving together themes from government, business, arts, and social sciences, this podcast reveals how planning sits at a crowded intersection of politics, economics, and community life. Tune in for thoughtful, sometimes surprising, explorations of the forces that decide what gets built, where, and why.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

50 Shades of Planning
Podcast Episodes
An Engaging Conversation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:45
A little while ago Sam Stafford was approached by the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC), the professional membership body for clerks to town, parish and community councils across England and Wales, about contributin…
Hitting the High Notes - Steve Quartermain [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:55
Hitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects…
Licensed to IL [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:24
Think back for a moment to August 2020, to the ‘Planning for the future’ white paper, and to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s desire for “radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War. Not mor…
Life Lessons [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:18
A short while ago friend of the podcast Shelly Rouse got in touch with Sam Stafford asking for suggestions for a lecture that Shelly was giving for another friend of the podcast Charlotte Morphet and her soon-to-be plann…
All Politics is Local [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:43
A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. The planning system, it could be contended, is a triangle. At one vertex there are the officers, the professionals, the technocrats, battling gainfully to get…
No Hope? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:31
In June 2022 the Government consulted on proposals to abolish hope and development value when assessing compensation for land compulsorily purchased for certain kinds of schemes. Nine months after it closed, a response h…
A Conversation with Bethany Cullen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:24
When Karolina Grebowiec-Hall contacted Sam Stafford about sharing her podcast with his LinkedIn network Sam went a step further and invited Karolina to share it by way of the 50 Shades platform. Karolina has created a we…
Life on the Front Line II [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:58
‘Are you planning a 50 Shades on the local authority staffing crisis?’ It was that message from a 50 Shades listener that prompted Episode 60 of the podcast, which Sam Stafford called ‘Life on the Front Line’. At around…
What Does a Good Local Plan Look Like? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:47
Local plan-making is in something of a crisis. Lichfields reported in April 2022 on the 11 local plans that had at that time been overtly delayed, paused or withdrawn. Indeed the number of plans published in draft, submi…
More Homes. Better Places. So Far As Possible. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:41
It will not have escaped the attention of regular 50 Shades listeners that a consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was launched shortly before Christmas and, knowing that it was coming,…