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taken from a European Commission repport -July 1994

The Maastricht Treaty on European Union does not include any specific reference to cities nor does it give the Community a specific remit for the development of an urban policy. However, European cities have increasingly benefitted from Community actions in the last few years. A more ambitious and better coordinated approach may be expected for the period 1994-1999; it can be summarized under five headings:

Continuation and strengthening of the financial support to cities;

Further introduction of the urban dimension in the formulation of various Community policies;

Further research on issues linked to urban problems through the new Fourth Research Framework Programme;

A continuing dialogue with cities and their organisations, in particular through the newly established Committee of the Regions;

Implementation of a new Community Initiative for urban areas (URBAN).

DG I : EXTERNAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS

The MED-URB programme promotes co-operation between cities in the European Community and those in the neighbouring Mediterranean countries. It aims to allow local authorities in eleven Mediterranean countries to make better use of the experience and know-how of local authorities in the Community.

DG III : INDUSTRY

Within the Information Technology Programme, ESPRIT, research closely related to the development of a new urban habitat is being carried out. Work will concentrate on practical approach towards home automation. The DG III has also prepared various working documents concerning the transport industry, in which the urban dimension is analysed.

DG V : EMPLOYMENT, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

The Community Initiative Employment-Horizon will deal with the integration of disadvantaged and disabled persons in the labour market. It can be expected that this programme will also be spent mainly in an urban environment. The ERGO and LEDA programmes, which concern, respectively, measures against long-term unemployment and local economic development, have contributed to the development of a knowledge base, much of which was focused on urban issues. In the framework of the informal meeting of Housing Ministers a number of publications concerning urban issues have been made.

DG VII : TRANSPORT

Urban issues feature strongly in the White Paper on transport, "The Future Development of the Common Transport Policy". In the field of research set by the Fourth Framework Programme for Research and Development, a separate programme is dedicated to transport, and a part of it will deal exclusively with urban transport issues. Furthermore, a number of actions take place under the COST programme.

DG X : INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION, CULTURE, AUDIOVISUAL SECTOR

DG X has crated centres for local urban initiative in six European cities in order to involve local residents in the implementation of actions and policies of the Commission which have a particular interest for their cities. In the framework of the Kaleidoscope Programme, the Commission supports projects promoting a high-quality urban development through culture. DG X also finances pilot projects in the field of architectural heritage. Finally, the event "European City of Culture" uses public and private in order to bring out both the cultural and architectural value of cities.

DG XI : ENVIRONMENT, NUCLEAR SAFETY AND CIVIL PROTECTION

The framework of the Commission's activities on urban environment has been set by the Green Paper on the Urban Environment (1990) and the Fifth Environmental Action Programme (1992). Within this framework, the Commission services and the Urban Environment Expert Group have launched the Sustainable Cities project, which is supposed to run from 1993 and 1995. Its planned outputs are a policy report and a good practice guide. The exchange of information and experience will be further encouraged through a European Campaign for Sustainable Cities and Towns involving coordinated actions through existing networks. In the area of urban mobility, the Commission has supported the establishment of the Car Free Cities Club. The network aims at cooperating in developing actions to encourage a reduced use of private cars and promote environmentally friendly modes of transport in urban areas. A number of specific urban environment projects have been supported through the Community's financial instrument for the environment, i.e. the LIFE programme. Since 1992, the Commission has been granting some short term financial assistance to the International Academy on the Urban Environment, Berlin, which is cooperating closely with the Urban Environment Expert Group in the Sustainable Cities Project.

DG XII : SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

DG XII research activities cover a large number of fields. Many of them are related to urban issues, for example the fields of industrial and materials technologies, environment, and energy . Within the Monitor/FAST Programme, DG XII has carried out a research project on the "Future of Cities: the Role of Science and Technology".The ROME network of 14 cities was set up in 1989 to act as a consultative body with respect to the research carried out by the FAST, to exchange viewpoints and participate in the development of research. As the FAST research project has been finalised, the network has ceased to exist in its initial form and has been replacedby the European Urban Observatory.

The European Parliament has opened a budget line of 1,8 MECU for the year 1994 for an RDT programme on the city. FAST has responded by preparing a proposal "City Action RDT Programme: towards a better liveable city".

Outside these programmes, a COST technical committee has been set up on urban civil engineering. The EUREKA umbrella project, Eurocare, deals with the conservation, restoration and maintenance of Europe's cultural heritage and building stock. A new COST initiative, named CIVITAS, is being proposed to promote research activities on urban sciences.

DG XIII : TELECOMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION, MARKET AND EXPLOITATION OF RESEARCH

Within the framework of the RACE II programme, over 40 MECU have been directed to urban related projects, such as telebanking, teleshopping and teleworking.

In relation to telematic systems for transport, the DRIVE and its Advance Transport Telematics follow-up programme have given considerable impetus to European cooperation in the areas of road safety improvement, the efficiency of road transport and the reduction of damage to the urban environment. In total, 31 cities are involved in various urban related projects within the programme.

The POLIS network promotes the exchange of information on road traffic technology between European cities.Within the network, five RTD projects in the field of urban transport telematics are being carried out.

The Telematics programme includes the preparation of pilot projects aimed at adressing through telematics the problems of unemployment, the related economic and social exclusion in urban areas, and the security of people, estates and goods in large conurbations. In view of these objectives, an initiative of some 40 European cities - the TELECITIES Network - is in progress to foster the exchange of experience with tele-activities and the cross-fertilisation between "digital cities".

Other sub-programmes of the Telematics Programme are either running or are embarking on projects with an urban application dimension in the field of flexible and distance learning (DELTA), health (AIM), the integration of the disabled and elderly people (TIDE), and the collection of environmental data. In the ENS sub-programme, internationally available information about central administration processes will be communicated to individual citizens in urban areas.

In the SPRINT programme, activities relating to urban areas are taking place, for example the promotion of science parks. In the IMPACT programme, activities cover multimedia tourist information and guidance systems in cities applying new information technologies.

In the period 1991-1993, Community Initiatives such as RESIDER, RENAVAL, RECHAR, RETEX, STRIDE, PRISMA and ENVIREG have contributed to strengthening the action of the Commission in urban areas.

Future initiatives (RESIDER, RECHAR, RETEX, KONVER, INTERREG, SMEs) will consolidate in the next years the Community dimension in actions related to urban issues.

Within the framework of Europe 2010, DG XVI commissioned a large scale study on the Urbanisation and Functions of Cities in the European Community. The aim of the study was to assess the current and future trends for the development of the Community's urban system and to identify the broader implications for cities of European integration during the 1990s. Further research is in progress on the role of small and medium-size cities in regional development and the impact of increasing marginalisation and segregation in cities.

DG XVI also co-finances 15 urban networks in the field of Interregional Co-operation.

European Urban Regional Planning awards launched in co-operation with the European Council of Town Planners aimed at promoting the best current examples of planning practice, will be awarded at the end of 1994.

DG XVII : ENERGY

DG XVII has promoted urban studies and networks, and the exchange of information and experience. It supported the creation of a European Network of Cities for the management of energy and the environment, comprising 25 cities from all Member States, aiming to exchange their experience and their know-how.

The programme THERMIE promotes technologies which contrhibute to the saving of energy.

DG XXI : CUSTOMS AND INDIRECT TAXATION: TASK FORCE ON STATUTORY CONTRIBUTIONS AND CHARGES

DG XXI has commissioned a pilot study on the fiscal aspects of urban concentration in the framework of the Internal Market, with a particular focus on local financing. It is also planning to comission a study on local taxation, describing the way of financing local needs by local taxation and other resources. The differences between urban areas and rural areas will be examined. Another study will analyse the responsibilities of different tiers of governments with regard to taxes and social contributions.

DG XXI is giving support to DG I and a group of towns from inside and ouside the EC concerning a project in the field of local taxation in the framework of the MED-URBS programme.

DG XXIII : ENTERPRISE POLICY, DISTRIBUTIVE TRADE, TOURISM AND COOPERATIVES

Altough DG XXIII's activities are not linked explicitly to urban areas, they often have a direct or indirect impact on cities. Activities such as Euro-Info Centres represent attraction poles for small and medium-sized enterprises. Programmes like "BC NET", "Europartenariat", and actions in favour of tourism are more often than not located in cities. Among these activities, DG XXIII has launched a study which looks at "retailing and the city". Moreover, a small programme of support for pilot actions is being implemented which aim to improve the effectiveness of co-operatives and voluntary associations in meeting society's needs, and in particular as vehicles of European Union policies.

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Summary of the 1993 Action-Oriented Research

"Are cities and more specifically, housing, to be viewed in terms of gender? How do men and women relate to urban areas? To what extent do gender relations bear on the neighbourhood or the home? Do they bring about change and understanding? (...)

Domestic areas are highly complex units, combining both political strategies and minute tactics mainly aimed at women as well as various overlapping references and projects. Neighbourhoods, houses - not to mention cities! - are forever undergoing changes and reading them requires a wide knowledge. Any domestic area has a past of many dimensions which should be thoroughly understood if it is to be managed and thereby restored to its rightful female and male owners." (Michelle Perrot's Foreword to Habitat au féminin by Ursula Paravicini, Presses Universitaires Romandes, 1990).

Citizenship requires a specific area: to be someone somewhere. The area is the product of acts of authority and compromises; its development wholly depends on trends and ruling parties. "Thoroughly understood if (it is) to be managed" in the interest of all implies active participation by female and male citizens alike.

Women's representation in this respect is blatantly low at nearly every level of decision, be it in public or political offices. Very few women belong to expert committees, departments of architecture and planning, real estate, building or civil engineering.

These findings and the personal experience of each member on the research team lead up to this study which attempts answering the following questions:

- What is the extent of discrimination against women and how is it carried out?

- Which specific actions be may expected of an increasingly equal opportunity policy for improving both women and men's living environment ("cadre de vie")?

- Which measures should be taken for increasing awareness and for informing future decision makers and users?

We first decided to focus our survey on schools of architecture and urban planning where privileged members are trained to "Conceive Cities" (Penser la ville) (to quote the title of an anthology edited by Pierre Ansay). Our ambition is to ensure that findings on the gender issue in cities become part and parcel of any study on territory and urban development, services and housing and thereby helping users in becoming active citizens.

Introduction

Women's participation, on a par with men's, in the decision making process in all issues and on all levels is a short term target to be reached, if the democratic obligation for treating women and men equally is to be fulfilled.

As regards developing territory, living environment, planning and architecture, women are obviously as highly involved as men and their concerns, points of view and experiences, whether specific or not, are to be taken into account.

Residential environments are telling in gender issues which they both sustain and transform.

However, these matters are generally only considered when directly linked to male values and concerns which are a priori universal. The significant changes occurring in our social systems - new types of work structures, diversified family units, increased mobility for people - affect women as much as they do men but are rarely taken into account.

Research and intervention concerning life environment, planning and architecture have been for the past fifteen years subjected to numerous critical essays and reports on experiments largely inspired by various feminist movements. Reading space in terms of gender, monitoring past and present environmental actions by women, studying programmes taking this dimension into account, conceiving development projects inspired by a vision of equality for men and women are so many trails explored by men and women research workers, practitioners, citizens from Europe and North America.

Purposes of the Research

This investigation was mainly carried out in 6 European Community countries and is an analysis of the current situation in schools of architecture and at institutional level with regard to the development of urban space. It is based on two criteria : equal opportunity rights for women and men and taking into account the gender factor.

By referring to researches carried out on the subject in Europe and North America, this study should encourage the conception of educational tools and action strategies for decision makers as well as teachers or students, likely to promote increased representation of women in decision procedures for architecture, planning and housing.

Moreover, this action-oriented research aims at showing researcher workers and decision makers the si-gnificance of approaching the issue of urban space and housing in terms of gender as a dynamic factor in planning, conceiving, developing and managing towns and cities.

This collective awareness should eventually contribute to improving our living environment ("cadre de vie") and reducing the factor of exclusion through proper housing, transport policies and public services in citieResearch areas and action strategies promoting gender

1. Housing, as overlapping territories inhabited by men and women;

2. Collective and community access facilities affec-ting women's' equal rights to the work force and social and cultural life;

3. Transport policies inasmuch as they promote increased mobility for women and men;

4. Security in cities and more specifically, for women, in conceiving and developing public spaces;

5. Users' participation, advisory committees, means for women and men for the appropriation of urban spaces.

SELECTED ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTIONS
Gender and structuring of contemporary urban environment

(Dominique Masson - Québec)

"The lack of consideration for a woman's position in an urban environment is principally due to researches mainly concentrating on social problems and so-called anti-social behaviour and to the type of approach in community studies. And, it must be said, to a certain amount of male egotism, revealed by research workers' stress on "ethnographic" studies in which male activities only within a gender-related society are sociologically significant or interesting and where gender activities as well as the types and spheres of social intervention are separate in keeping with chan-ging historic boundaries.

Any academic production on the theme "women and cities" is fairly recent, dating from the early seventies. Since then, in spite of the production gaining in significance, its circulation remains limited but for the publication of a few collective works and articles. Systematic publication has been slowed down by its progress spreading out into various disciplines such as architecture, geography, anthropology, sociology, urban studies and women's studies .

Nevertheless, a constant streak stands out from the numerous themes following a review of the issue's various dimensions, revealed by former researches. A women's life in the city is closely related to spatial organisation of social activities. In this respect, the study of urban sociology is particularly relevant. Though it is early days yet, researches show that gender categories may undoubtedly be introduced as variables or main points of interest for urban sociology. In this way, new aspects of space segregation and symbolic space boundaries may be revealed. Moreover, the opening of urban sociology onto gender issues is also increasing awareness to a woman's position with regard to space : this double trend is at the basis of dynamic recent researches and can only be welcomed."

(Dominique Masson - Québec)

"Finally, women do not have the same access as men to parks, streets (especially at night) and to other public spaces. The necessity for caution women are taught at an early age tends to keep their daily spatial patterns within specific boundaries. Woods, parks, streets, bars and movie theatres are "danger zones" for women alone where male-female domination is expressed in terms of harassment or at worst, physical violence. It may also be said that women do not necessarily wait to experience this kind of violence before restraining their mobility. Staring, insults and whistling are usually more than enough to establish male domination in a given space and to make women feel their presence is not allowed.

(Denise Piche - Québec)

"Societies create living environments and they in turn determine their inhabitants. Both space and living environment reveal social relationships, especially in terms of gender, which they contribute to sustain and reproduce... Environment structures are not frozen in time. They undergo constant changes and developments, interacting with society transformations. Small wonder therefore that women's organisations tend to influence developing the environment... Environment may be genderless, but the various contributions to this issue on feminist research suggest that as a product of gender relationships, it certainly is not neutral..."

Feminine ideology has integrated "modern life" by emphasising happiness on an increasing amount of objects. Material abundance is, in every respect, part of the womanly image. Home is naturally a privileged area for such abundance.

Moreover, feminist ideology radically questions current housing, i.e. used within a family context for women's oppression, a place for locking them up and for dispersing them as a social group. Its slogan could be summarised as "Women leave home!".

(Annelise Gérard - Strasbourg)

Four main types of attitudes (or protests) may be singled out :

1) protests against the rules of the game of architecture, objections to current practices. Political and social critics are often, but not always, women.

2) Feminist claims usually by women militants. They are divided between those who feel that oppression against women (sexual domination) permeates all social levels and prevails over any other approach and those more politically minded who feel exploitation takes precedence (economic domination).

3) a trend promoting the specific role of women architects.

Professional practice is analysed through its economic and social components :

- economically, claims by women architects are the same as other women's (equal salary for the same work...);

- professionally, women architects are first and foremost architects, knowledgeable and as such capable. Capability poses a specific problem to women : having been oppressed for so long, will they use it the same way as men? Knowledge and competence are for women of this trend a tool at the service of other people in order to inform, enlighten, and make collective decisions. This type of professional practice implies researching new areas and new methods : it cannot be a mere renewal of traditional methods...

The heart of the matter : production of knowledge

This analysis leads to the heart of the matter : the status of the issue on "women and urban planning" on the one hand, and on the other hand, the link between the issue and schools of architecture.

Determining factors for the debate on attitudes are to be found outside of schools of architecture, their main vocation being teaching. However, schools are responsible for producing knowledge and research. Should women wish to pursue their work in this area (i.e. women and urban planning, as problems concerning women architects are but one aspect of the issue), according to their specific points of view, they should do so by producing knowledge."

Intervening through a woman's point of view

The so-called women's' issue does not specifically belong to women, though it is mainly their claim. It is a major social issue today. The values women strive to include in current structures are universal values.

Women's' points of view regarding urban projects, city life and living conditions are favourable catalyses for radical changes in these areas, benefiting women, men and children.

Assessing the results of the research

This study has raised more questions than it has brought answers and tends to recommend future action strategies than proposing ready-to-be-used educational tools. Very few significant researches exist on the issue and are fairly outdated. As regards statistics from the 6 countries which could help analysis, they tend to be insufficient when considering women's and men's respective roles.

Moreover, the response rate to the questionnaires which were issued to schools of architecture and to a selected number of politicians and academics tends to be low (approx. 30%), which left certain areas doubtful.

Through a lack of means and time, systematic investigations were not possible at institutional level (administrations, ministries, research centres, urban departments, councils, consultancy associations,...). The many participants at every level of decision would require implementing significant means of investigation and analysis.

Finally, results vary from country to country due to several facts :

- surveys would have to cover significantly different areas : 2 schools or institutes in Denmark or Greece for 58 in Germany;

- statistics are difficult to obtain, especially in Belgium and former East Germany;

- each partner had to edit the questionnaire according to the context.

The action-oriented research had the following results:

• exchanging information and confronting points of view with regard to the situation in each country and the sensitivities of each and everyone on the issue;

• raising male and female teacher and student awareness on the gender issue : nearly all concerned wish to be kept informed on the results of this first study;

• revealing the low representation of women in teaching bodies and in administrative positions managing schools, institutes of architecture and professional organisations;

• lack of information of the gender dimension as source of knowledge

• inventory of claims and action strategies suggested by female and male participants.

The results of this survey, after having been relayed to schools and institutes of architecture and to universities should in any case encourage new in-depth studies on the issue (students' thesis, researches in the third cycle...) and organising workshops and seminars.

Future Action Strategies

At the seminar in Athens in October 1993 organised by our Greek partners for the conclusion of this project, a list was compiled of 18 future actions strategies for instance

1. Drafting a "Charter for Women in the City" for guiding European policies in fighting against exclusion and promoting citizens rights;

2. Encouraging the E.A.A.E (European Association for Architectural Education) in circulating results of the research and organising various events on the themes mentioned (105 schools belong to this organisation);

3. Media campaigning in order to promote the gender issue with regard to urban space and housing

PARTNERS:

Project Coordinator: Roland Mayerl City & Shelter

40 rue d'Espagne B-1060 Brussels Belgium

Tel/Fax: 32-2 2 534 77 35

e.mail: city.shelter@skynet.be 

National Technical University of Athens

Dept of Urban and Regional Planning

Valtetsiou 51 GR - 10681 Athens Greece

Tel : (301) 36 13 810 Fax : (301)3619288

Annie Vrychea and Dina Vaiou

Laboratory of Housing

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts

Kongens Nytorv 1 DK - 1050 Kobenhavn Denmark

Tel : (45-33) 12 68 60 Fax : (45-33) 12 75 98

Karen Zahle

FOPA e.v.

Adlerstrasse 81D D-4600 Dortmund Germany

Tel : (49-231) 14 33 29 Fax : (49-231) 16 21 74

Ursula Heiler and Ute Beik

Matrix

The Print House Ashwim Street 18

GB-London E8 3DL United Kingdom

Tel : (44-71) 249 76 03 Fax : (44-71) 923 20 79

Ann de Graft-Johnson and Gozi Wamu

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Proposals

By Claire Billen and Eliane Gubin (ULB)

Translation: Miriam Brunson

Considering a woman's position in the city is a double process because - as V. Soriano very rightly says in her study on rural housing - the word "place" in French has a double meaning : "Place (in French) signifies both the place where people live and a person's role or status in a given environment." (L'Habitat rural. Nouveaux modèles, nouveaux visages, Alines, 1985, p.1).

The study should therefore first consider a woman's access to citizenship. Women have long been excluded from town management. Cities have been, and still are, built and managed without women and their daily concerns are largely ignored. Explaining this phenomena ought not to be purely restricted to the dichotomy private/public as there are other reasons for the unequal sharing of space and housing.

They must be clearly defined as they help understand the strategies which women have relentlessly developed over the years towards integrating city life. These strategies now tend to counteract as they have become common to the point of dimming the problem of "spatial" discrimination. Many women experience this type of discrimination, unaware however of its underlying intent or (sometimes hidden) influence on their attitude towards careers, housework, etc. A preliminary study of adaptive behaviour patterns will help increase awareness to change. A historic dimension therefore aims at :

- exposing any so-called natural behaviour (that which is generally accepted because of it's being "natural");

- stressing certain recurring phenomena which are generally believed to be new (e.g. single-parent families).

This is why we feel that the first point of the Charter, i.e. "Space as a privileged environment likely to promote citizenship : To be someone somewhere" is particularly significant. Citizenship naturally tends to be uppermost in discrimination issues but any action undertaken towards improving equal opportunities between men and women must take into account women's reluctance on "entering" spheres of power where they might have some influence on any decision-making process. Do women's access to citizenship and the various means and times in the Community explain this reluctance? Why and how? These questions are currently being examined by history groups and a preliminary assessment is now possible.

A second stage would be to launch a diachronic and comparative study on the following issues (these themes could generally be included in the fourth program and be considered as prospective positive actions) :

1. Separating work and home. We believe that separation is highly preferable to non-dissociation (in other words, sending women back home to work, albeit working with modern technology, e.g. computers). It should be remembered that western societies have long and unsuccessfully tried solving problems related to work and women's emancipation : sending women back home contributed in hiding any social discrepancy which had previously been highlighted by their success in public domains and on the labour market! (i.e. economic crisis, post-war reconstruction,...).

2. We, on the other hand, suggest as a working hypothesis that the distance separating home from work is a step towards freedom for women. Intensive exploitation at home during the past century in our regions and currently in economically underdeveloped countries has always been a means for controlling and exploiting a woman's work whereas regulated industrial work undeniably gave access to economic emancipation and renewed time-management. Other examples are non-resident woman servants versus resident woman servants or women shop assistants working de facto in better conditions once they no longer were required to live on the premises. The split between work and home - which has mainly been studied with regard to family consequences and therefore pronounced as negative - produces highly positive effects and should altogether be largely considered.

Meanwhile, discrepancies and difficulties arising from women managing space, time and housing are not to be ignored. It is, however, essential to refocus these three interacting elements within their own developing process instead of within a domestic (not to say "familialist" ) perspective alone, which would, from the outset, forge new interpretations and solutions.

3. Another point to be stressed is the social progress resulting from working hours which have steadily decreased since the nineteenth century, as well as women gaining access to an increasingly diversified and improved labour market. But public opinion must be made aware of another side to the story : though social progress has undeniably been responsible in creating new needs (instead of the split between work and home), the issue has never been considered from a gender-related point of view. Instead, the new model has merely been tacked onto the old one and new needs merged with the traditional family model. Women's responsibilities and duties have considerably increased as a result, at a time when men have been able to take advantage of social improvements and increased leisure time.

It may therefore be said that :

-improved domestic comfort and housing conditions have subsequently increased household tasks. Eventually, similar negative effects are not to be ruled out with the current excessive use of household electrical appliances, especially if the trend is "back to basics" and a "better quality of life" (e.g. baking one's own bread, ...).

-longer education for children merely increases a woman's work and responsibilities, which in any case is no improvement on the nineteenth century (an attempt at compensating her being locked up in the domestic circle).

-women often have to think up and organise leisure activities -even community activities- as well as manage the logistics of driving their children to dancing, judo or swimming lessons or to visit friends, not to mention putting in extra work if the family happens to spend week-ends in a country house.

Any progress -albeit undeniable- must therefore be dissociated from the subsequent and socially explicable effects in order to highlight time/space/housing-related discrepancies which have progressively crept into women's lives. They in fact bear witness to society's inability to renounce traditional family stereotypes and moral values with regard to social development.

Prospective action strategies should therefore be considered for:

1. domestic and work space, with particular emphasis on improving transportation means for equal opportunities.

2. ways of reassuring women who feel guilty about claiming positive discrimination. For instance, many women devote themselves entirely to taking care of the rest of the family. This perfectly matches the model of devotion and sacrifice expected from women in the nineteenth century, a legacy largely preserved up to this day. Nothing, however, proves that this devotion is essential to a family's harmonious development. It does instead help get rid of a series of cumbersome social problems by passing them on to women. School schedules aim for various reasons at constantly reducing time spent at school. This is usually justified by authority arguments (medical, psychological,...). As a child's "well-being" is at stake, objections would be unseemly and competition for a mother's spare time no longer an issue. It is up to a mother to fit in and as this usually proves to be expensive, tiring and stressful in the long run, women are (successfully) discouraged from working away from home!

3. needs linked to increasing mobility (what usually "distinguishes" men from women on the labour market): differences in using a car and public transportation or in walking.

4. community development, including trade : local trade versus department stores : men and women preferring one or the other (depending on the period and country), the effect it has on their own time, the consequences of neighbourhood trade disappearing, which had mainly been a woman's occupation but which recently has been taken over by male immigrants).

5. the issue on safety must consider two different aspects :

a) "practical" safety : simple matters such as sidewalks : many elderly people are afraid of falling down. This fear is as real and as painful, if not more so, as that of being attacked and often discourages them from going outside. It would not be that difficult however of attending to the upkeep of sidewalks, rethink access to pedestrian crossings (as well as underground passages), to reckon signal time in terms of pedestrian rhythm instead of automobile flow (crossing a street can sometimes ressemble a marathon), making sure pedestrians are safe from cars when crossing a road,....).

b) physical attack-free safety (we feel the Canadian project is a good starting point). To the best of our knowledge, no diachronic study is available on the issue. Does it affect women more now than in the past? If so, why? If not, why? Possible interesting means for study would be through surveys of the "news in brief" columns, police archives or criminal statistics.

Brussels, 28 May 1994

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Université Lunière Lyon

by Daniel Welzer-Lang

Lyon - October 1994

Much has been said about men's silences, their elusiveness and their inability of "taking on" ... Or rather, much has been said of men by women. In other instances, alarming analyses mistake effects for causes. Some people, men or women, emphasize the effects of feminism when denouncing violence against women, their massive appearance in statistics and estimates, or when claiming that the rate of male violence has been dramatically increasing.

It doesn't take a genius, however, to realize that relationships between men and women are changing at a historically unprecedented rate of speed. In no event may gender-related changes be likened to a general backlash trend.

In this article, I would like to speak of men, of all men, but of myself as well, because there is no exception to the rule that women are women, and men are men because they are the product of the same social constructions. I have written a great many studies on male violence, rape, and abuse of all kinds which millions of women must suffer daily (Welzer-Lang 1988, 1991, 1992b). This is the naked truth and the struggle against this type of domination is far from being over. This is not, however, what I wish to speak of in this article. Instead I will speak of the changes men are experiencing, the subsequent uneasiness, and the difficulty of falling in with new values. In order to speak of these changes, the influence of feminism and masculinism, I will draw from my personal experience and from 10 years of surveys on men and masculinity.

I belong to that group of men who, throughout the world, are very much aware of the need to change and who having lived with feminists, have rapidly, though not always easily, come to terms with what women have to say about relations between men and women in general, and about the way in which men relate to women.

I have based this article on three types of studies which, together with my team of men and women researchers, I carried out in Lyon. The first concerns domestic male violence. The other studies are fairly recent and concern men and the domestic environment, and male phobia. My friend and colleague, Jean Paul Filiod, and I, tried to discover the changes operating in men and women, besides those related to discourse. We went and lived with some of them for a few days, sometimes a few weeks. These ethnological observations have recently been published (Welzer-Lang, Filiod, 1993). As regards male phobia, the survey is in its final stages and will be published in the autumn of '94(1) (Welzer-Lang, Dutey, Dorais (dir), 1994).

I wish to develop three ideas, three themes, which contribute to the study of gender issues. Analyses base themselves on the established gender issue, which in other words means that understanding the changes in men no longer requires a naturalist or essentialist analysis. Instead, interactive relations between men and women in a heterosexual world must be acknowledged. When women change, men must follow suit.

1. The first question concerns personal development. How do men progress and how do women relate to changes ? May men's silences be assimilated to a form of inertia ? What were the reactions to feminist claims ? How did men react to them ?

2. The second question is a direct result of the first one. In our personal relationships, we speak of love, household tasks, and children. But are we really speaking the same language ? Are we discovering the surprising effects of gender-differentiated constructions ?

3. Finally, the third question concerns men's difficulties when it comes to self-development. How do men view their maleness and their relations to women ? Are the difficulties men are experiencing in changing to be solely ascribed to women ?

.../...

Men, Guilt, and Change

Ever since Women's Lib first started and the subsequent dismantlement of daily relations which confined women to being spouses and mothers and/or sexual objects for men, men and women militants (followed to a larger extent by men and women from all social backgrounds) have had to re-learn how to live together. They have had to learn how to structure analyses (obviously theoretical) concerning domination and daily life ...

New trends have appeared and many men are giving up the "eternal temporariness". Some men and women, in spite of the precarious economic situation in recent years, have taken up ascending careers, others adjust to the first utopia and continue to live together, other numerous couples are breaking up.

Other men and women have decided, more or less of their own free will, to live on their own.

Men, Women, and the Dual Asymmetrical Language

What has happened ? Parallel to daily life in which the differences in social constructions are revealed in a very practical and sometimes painful light, feminist and masculinist research are starting to show that male and female gender are organizing two interactive symbolic orders. Nicole-Claude Mathieu is a pioneer on the subject (19 71, 1985, 1992). Various areas are researching and analysing what is known as a dual language, i.e. for men, and for women. Men and women do not use the same language when they speak of violence, of cleanliness and tidiness, and of abuse or love ... Dominators and dominees cannot simply wipe out the effects of social constructions ...

Women, in order to be perceived as good wives and mothers, under constant pressure from neighbours and standards, keep their homes nice and tidy. Women, and their psyches, are related to the state of their homes. Like home, like woman, in a way. As regards men, those who take on housework, or who were taught to behave when their sisters were being taught how to clean house, those men will clear up when things become untidy. It must be remembered that men and women each have their own basic threshold. In conventional domination-based social constructions women seek to prevent, whereas men seek remedies. Of course, we are talking here of mere social constructions. And this analysis will certainly not be contradicted by women students or journalists who publicly unveil their psyche to clearly show they are not dominated by men.

We have been brought up surrounded by symbols, notions of cleanliness and untidiness, and varying aesthetic standards. Today, they must be negotiated. Any negotiation requires at least two people, or two separate grounds on which personalities might be established. After, common grounds may be sorted out.

I have spoken of cleanliness and tidiness, but a gender-related domestic environment goes well beyond this issue. The effects men and women's development have had on interior design have been revealed : the kitchen-lavatory axis, formerly a double sanctuary, i.e. the kitchen for the women, and the lavatory for the men, the singular itineraries of men, who for the past 15 years in some cases, with or alongside their female companion, have experienced something different which we would wish to define today. All these realities are described in our ethnographic study ...

Male Phobia as a protection for virility(2)

Why do men resist ? In order to fully understand why men remain impervious to change, it is important to grasp the way in which inter- and intra-gender relationships are conceived. The former has been discussed ; the latter concerns the way in which men relate as this is also a determining factor in the social relations which structure male domination. I know, many women remain convinced that they, as mothers, are responsible for men being violent and domineering. Tell them it is not so. Men look after their own and their peers.

Understanding the way in which men relate helps to dismantle the notion of male phobia. The way in which men are taught in "houses-for-men"(3), where they must continuously show they are not women, that they are and want to be men. Schools, sports' clubs, the army, pubs, teams, ... are so many examples of places where men regularly meet.

Male phobia may be defined as a type of discrimination against people to whom are ascribed or who show certain qualities (or failings) which are typical of the opposite gender. Too often, male phobia has been mistaken for heterosexism, i.e. the habit, which even democratic systems have, of solely acknowledging heterosexuality, to the extent of excluding, as in some publications, any considerations on homosexuality, under the pretence that that is another issue altogether.

In the light of 10 years' research, it may be said that men cannot change their attitudes towards women, if they do not at the same time, question male injunctions and therefore the way in which they relate to men. This is fairly simple to understand. Education, sports, and groups for boys exist for the purpose of turning them into REAL men. Honours and rewards for the worthy, shame and disgrace for the unsuccessful.

From Questioning Gender Boundaries towards Achieving Autonomy

Men have reached this stage, our studies have shown that. They are caught between guilt and autonomy, dismantling male standards and a male phobic resistance to change. Social constructions have become heavier to shoulder as gender privileges imparted by male education have become threatened. Men have been thrown off balance. It is up to them now to discover new and different landmarks. And landmarks issued by feminists are not enough. Before breaking down gender boundaries, a common language must be found. And as Marc Chabot rightly said in 1987 : "Men's speech is silence ...

(1) Research on the male emergence in domestic space was sponsored by the "Ministère de l'Equipment, du Logement, des Transports et de la Mer (Plan Construction et Architecture)". Research on male phobia was sponsored by the "Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida".

The two last books are published in Montreal in the collection "Les Hommes en changements", VLB / Le Jour (Distribution in Europe is by Inter-Forum).

(2) To quote Christophe Gentaz (1994)

(3) This theme has been fully developed in "L'Homophobie, la face cachée du masculin" in Welzer-Lang, Dutey, Dorais, 1994.

Daniel WELZER-LANG

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IS SEXUAL DIVISION OF WORK AT THE ORIGIN OF MODERN CITIES ?

CNRS - GEDIST
by Jacqueline Coutras
Paris - October 1994

We all agree to admit that modern cities, and especially very large cities, show social inequalities which originate in the merchant work force. The present-day urban crisis is, obviously, closely linked to the economic functioning and the interpersonal ties which are made at the place of work. This crisis is definitely an exasperation of socioeconomic segregations. But is it just that? No doubt the inequalities of economic origin are directly responsible for the formation of "pockets of poverty" which are such a tragedy in the suburbs. This is the reason for the decay of social life in more and more sprawling urbanized zones. This is also what causes a rupture of the "social tie" and seriously jeopardizes the urban community's cohesion. Our point is not to discuss this explanation which has been confirmed by all the facts.

Nevertheless,we must ask ourselves whether the organization of urban space, which breaks up cities as well as city dwellers lives into distinct time and space units distant from one another, is to be thouroughly explained by the functioning of our economic system.

It seems to me that the social and spatial malfunctions which just keep on increasing -and which are periodically revealed by more and more serious outbursts of violence- also rely on the sexual division of work, i.e. the division which assigns production work to some people and reproduction work to others. So, it's merchant activities for men and it's domestic and family reponsibilities for women. It is such a division that makes it possible to have a splitting between spaces devoted to economic activities and spaces allotted to residential life, family life or private life too. The "functionalization" which characterizes cities for more than a century now, could not have been applied in such a systematic way, if sexual division of work had not existed. This is actually another aspect of social division of work which the analysts always forget to mention, as they probably think this aspect so obvious, they needn't bring it up specifically.

In my opinion, if domestic, family or private life had not been conceived as autonomous and complementary with regard to professional life, the geographical isolation of residential "areas" within cities would not have been possible. It could not even have been imagined like that.

According to many analyses, the differential relationships which exist between sexes and which express themselves in the city might have their origins elsewhere, in other fields of social life: work, education... People acknowledge at the most that space aggravates certain imbalances as regards schedules or when there are no adequate facilities making it possible to look after children or when it comes to getting domestic work done, bringing people to work... But it is said there is no comparison between segregations of economic origin and inequalities or rather local, partial malfunctions concerning aspects of "everyday" life, which are important of course but not essential to life in the city... Eventually, all you have to do is see to it that there are more facilities which should also be better adapted to the conditions of modern life in order to bring down the disparities between masculine and feminine practices which, all things considered, do not go any further than the occasional and the anecdotal stages.

So, if the functioning of the city reflects the sexual division of work as much as the social division, well, in order to remedy the sexed inequalities which originate in space, it is not enough to just improve public transport in one place, to just increase the number of schools in another place or to just extend the opening hours of facilities outside of school. Of course such "arrangements" do make women's daily lives easier. They are necessary but are mere palliatives. They do not fundamentally change the sexed inequalities created by the functioning of towns.

Wanting to establish an equal right to the city for everyone means thinking about the sexed division of work, i.e. about the conditions which create, perpetuate and increases the domination of one sex over the other. As you can see, this problem does not just concern women. It involves equally both men and women.

WOMEN'S DAILY MOBILITY IN THE CITY

Daily mobility plays an essential part in our present-day lifestyles. Nowadays, being able to travel far, quickly and comfortably even seems to be a necessity in order to make several and various contacts with the "others," so that all kinds of exchanges can occur between persons and groups.

Mobility seems to be the best way to enjoy the benefits of a town and that is how it also becomes one of the basic conditions of the social integration of people and consequently also a criterion of social discrimination and even of exclusion. Of course the most well-off sociocultural enjoy the least restricted, the most chosen and the most dense forms of mobility. We have been able to oppose a "proximity culture," turned in on housing and everyday residential aspects, to a "mobility culture," which is the dominating model of developed societies and the privilege of the most well-integrated social categories.

The question we must ask ourselves is how and on what conditions the masculine and feminine mobility practices create or maintain discriminations between sexes.

The mobility practices probably cannot change on their own the relationships both sexes have built up with space; it is out of the question to survey them without linking them to other lifestyle elements of which the effects are convergent or which justify or result from such relationships. For example, on the one hand, it is obvious that it was because women were in demand on the job market in the 60s, that they were able to give themselves the means to multiply and extend their journeys. But, on the other hand, being able to move around more easily has encouraged women to become more demanding and look for jobs which suit them the best and, by doing so, to increase their presence in town. We could not understand the multiplication and the extension of journeys either, without referring to the evolution of the urban organization according to functional zones which are more and more distinct and distant from one another. And we could not understand all this without looking into the changes of lifestyles which make people want to redefine the "quality" criteria of domestic work and to localize an increasing number of them outside home and in scattered places in town. We could not imagine either how women's journeys could have acquired a socializing charge without mentioning more particularly the socialization practices learned at school, at work and more generally via all forms of participation in public life; multilocalization goes hand in hand with going beyond the neighbourhood relational universe.

WOMEN'S MOBILITY : A QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION

Mobility means first of all travelling a certain distance in order to do something; in which case, it is to be evaluated according to the number and the mode of journeys, the distances covered and the localization of the frequented spaces.

Using the word in that sense, it means it has a most essential place in women's everyday lives, as the material organization of a "double day's work". Being able to travel quickly and comfortably, i.e. having journeys which are not too time-consuming and not too tiring, has been -and remains- the best way to ensure the coexistence of professional and domestic work during a day.

Mobility takes up a lot of time in a day of a woman's life. For instance, wage-earning women with children spend 70 min. travelling. It is an important part of their time budget, if we compare that to what they devote to their spare time, i.e. 3 h 05, and to the schedules of male wage-earners for the same activities, i.e. respectively 83 min. and 3 h 35.

If we evaluate mobility according to the distance covered, the time spent and the mode of journey, it appears that feminine mobility has "caught up," or mostly at least. As their mobility levels were extremely low, all the women, regardless of social class, have proportionally profited more from the general evolution and the improvements of transport systems. The changes in feminine mobility account mostly for the quantitative changes noted at the total level of journeys. Nowadays, "making a distinction according to the sexes of the number, the duration of the journeys and the modes of transport, no longer seems relevant; more than the sex criterion, it is criteria regarding socioprofessional category and age which have become the most discriminant" (8). Even if women still cover 25% less distance than men, which means that their geographical investment area remains more restricted, we can however give more and more examples, with figures and everything, showing that women are less and less submitted to the proximity supply and revealing an important change in the characteristics of feminine mobility evaluated according to its absolute quantitative aspect.

The duration and the number of the journeys are similar for both sexes. They all diversify in more or less similar proportions their places of destination; more particularly, the work migrations are less exclusively towards the town centre, and there is an increase in district to district and even region to region journeys for both sexes.

Women's motorization is probably their most noticeable victories in the past years. It is mainly responsible for the strong increase in household motorization rates. France, in which this phenomenon occurred very quickly, is the most multimotorized country in Europe; in 1989, nearly one household out of 4 owned at least two cars (in 1979, it was 17%); in motorized households, the proportion of women as main drivers of a vehicle increased by 40% in 10 years; in 1987, 96% of the 24-year old men and 85% of the women of the same age have a driver's licence, the latter being from now on "part of the bare minimum to enter adult life, whether you are a man ot a woman."

Being able to travel further and further, and also faster and faster, and in less and less tiring conditions, means serious changes in domestic work itself as well as in its organization, in the articulation between this work and professional work.

DOMESTIC WORK AND ITS MOBILITY

Feminine mobility, in its functional aspect, is a pivot in the lifestyles of women... as well as of families. Owing to the material possibilities a woman gives, she contributes most directly to the upholding or not of the share-out of domestic work. She takes part in making the tasks more "profitable." It is in the name of gaining time and fatigue, of rationalization and more efficiency within domestic work, that the proximity supply is considerde to be inadequate. For example, doing the shopping in chain stores is no longer the "privilege" of households living in districts where there is a lack of proximity stores. Every woman we interview today, considers that in order to buy less expensive items and at the same time find a well-supplied place, they can no longer make do with the small neighbourhood shops. Even non-working women living in the Paris inner city, where the supply of proximity services does happen to be good and varied, take their car -or their husband's if they haven't got one- once a week or once a month "to go to the filling station" at the chain store which is to be found "just beyond the ring road."

Children's education has experienced the same kind of evolution. At a time when there is a lot of unemployment among youngsters, parents are very concerned about their children's education and particularly about succeeding at school as that is considered to be the best weapon against unemployment. Schools and places outside of school on Wednesdays are no longer chosen just according to the fact they are near home, as it used to be the case for the given social classes. Families look for the "best" schools, i.e. the ones which offer the most chances to succeed, even if such a choice is going to put a strain on the time budget of the youngsters and of the women who accompany them. The legitimatization occurs in the name of the children's future and so it also benefits the family cell.

These new demands with regard to domestic and family work require transport conditions allowing their achievement and vice versa, improving the transport conditions reinforces them. However, public transport, which until recently was the mode women used the most, is not well-adapted to the transportation of people carrying parcels and does not meet the requirements of child mobility. Women's motorization was an obligation so that they would keep the family and educational tasks and so they would get them done according to the present "performance" standards adopted by the social categories in our survey.

THE BROADENING OF THE JOB AREA

The broadening of the job area means the possibility of gaining access to a better job for the women who have one; and, for those who do not have a job yet, it is a prime condition to hope to obtain one. Of course this is common to active men and women but, as far as the latter are concerned, a new kind of behaviour is to be noted. The young unemployed women we interviewed are convinced that being able to leave the residential area is the first step towards their professional (re)integration; having to stay their is experienced as no longer being able to ensure one's "living independence." A thorough knowledge of the city and of the functioning of its transport systems is considered to be an essential weapon to avoid remaining unemployed for too long. Even the poorest women are aware of this. If there is one post in their budget on which they do would not want cut down, it is transport: they may be spending much less in all fields, especially the ones pertaining to "going out," buying the orange (transport) card in the Paris region remains however a priority. A dividing line seems to be noticed between who still have professional expectations and those who do not express any (anymore). The former, in order to preserve their abilities to follow training courses, to carry out the necessary procedures when meeting employers or couselling services, ... need the orange card "with several zones," so they can gain access to a vast area including the inner city, the close or the more distant suburbs.

Has the city therefore become a place where women -just as much as men- make ties, exchange ideas and make many and various contacts? Are the places women frequent are a source of socialization for them? This question remains widely open and, anyhow, mobility does not contain all the relationships with the city. However, good transport is a precondition for any kind of social integration.

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PUBLICATIONS ON THE THEME

BOOKS

COUTRAS, Jacqueline, From Traditional Towns to new suburbs, public space in the feminine mode. Paris : CDU-SEDES, 1987, 172 pp.

Paris, Cartographic Documentation. City of Paris, Town Planning Board, Paris Town Planning Workshop, 1978, 25 pl.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline, LACASCADE, Jean-Louis, MERCIER, Pierre-Alain, TOURREAU, Roland, MEYER, Sibylle, SCHULZE, Eva. Domestic Technologies and Family Cultures. Elements for an Issue. Paris : IRESCO, 1992, 90 pp.

CHAPTERS FROM BOOKS

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. The City in the Feminine Mode. In Géographie sociale ("Social Geography"). Acts from the Lyon symposium, 14-16, October 1982, D. Noin ed. Lyon : s.n. 1983, pp. 432-443.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Women and Space. Introductory synthesis and meeting reports. In Femmes, féminisme et recherches ("Women, Feminism and Research"), Acts of the national Toulouse Symposium, December 1982. Paris : Ministery of Research and Industry, Ministry of Women's Rights, 1984, pp. 443-447.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline, Male and Female Neighbours. In Les Représentations en actes ("The Actual Representations"). Acts of the symposium at Lescheraines, Grenoble Geography Institute. Grenoble, 1986, pp. 125-129.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Propriety, Morality and sex relationships applied to space. In ZANOTTO, Gabriele, The languages of Geographical Representations. Universita degli Studi di Venezia, dipartemento di Scienze Economiche, 1989, vol. 2, pp. 235-250.

BOUVERET-GAUER, Martine, COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Commercial Organization of Towns for 10 Years: Moving Towards Another Notion of Commercial Proximity? In PALLIER, Ginette, METTON, Alain. Trade in the Center of Towns. Acts of the Limoges Symposium, 1990. Limoges : PULIM, 1991, pp. 115-128.

REPORTS

COUTRAS, Jacqueline, FAGNANI, Jeanne. Rapports conjugaux et mobilité des femmes "employées" dans l'agglomération parisienne ("Conjugal Relationships and 'Employed' Women's Mobility in the Paris Agglomeration"). Research financed by the DGRST. Paris : SMASH, 1979, 139 pp.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline, JASPARD, Maryse, REMY, Jacques. Family in the Statistics. In Enquêtes statistiques et indicateurs de pratiques familiales ("Statistic Surveys and Family Practice Indicators"), synthesis report. Paris : IRESCO, 1989.

ARTICLES

Sociospatial Analyses

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. The Recent Evolution of the Paris Population. APUR, 1976, 54 pp.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. The structure of the Paris Population according to the Ages in 1975 and its Recent Evolution. APUR, 1977, 25 pp.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline, HAMET, François. Decohabitation and Analysis of the Population in the Paris Housing. APUR, 1977, 20 pp.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. The Activity of the Inhabitants of Paris and Socioprofessional Changes for 20 Years. APUR, 1978, 41 pp.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Evolution of the Aged Paris Population. Gerontology and Society. 1978, n° 8, pp.147-158.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Residential Mobility and History of the Household Lives in the Paris Agglomeration. APUR, 1981, 27 pp.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Housing Crisis and Sociodemographic evolution in Paris for 20 Years. Acta Geographica. 1981, n° 46.

Sexed Dimension of Space

COUTRAS, Jacqueline, FAGNANI, Jeanne. Women and Transport in the Urban Environment. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 1978, vol. 2, n° 3.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Women, Access to Property and Family Life in the Suburban Environment. Géographie sociale, n° 2, 1985.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Relationships sexes, Relationships with Space. Hegoa. 1985, n° 1, pp. 159-172 and 303-306.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Home-Work, Back and Forth. Informations sociales, 1987, n° 5.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Men and Women in the French Public Space for a Century. Cahiers de Géographie du Québec, 1987, vol. 31, n° 83, pp. 143-155.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Women Between Traditional and New Towns. Bulletin du Comité économique et social de la région Ile de France, 1988, n° 15.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. The Spatial Practices of Sexes: Which Issues? Espace, populations, sociétés, 1989, n° 1, pp. 111-116.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. The Town in the Feminine Mode Informations sociales, 1991, n° 11, pp. 71-74.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Social Sex Relationships and Space Production. Cahiers du GEDISST, 1992, n° 3, pp. 11-16.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Differential Integration of Sexes in the Urban Spaces. Cahiers du GEDISST, 1992, n° 5, pp. 7-21.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. The Opening of Public Urban Space to Women. Use or Self-Possession? Acta Geographica, 1993, n° 93, pp. 13-21.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Family Life and Organization of Transport: cannot be reconciled? In Villes et Transports, Acts of the 1991-1994 seminar. Paris, Town Planning, 1993, t. 1 pp. 407-4015.

COUTRAS, Jacqueline. Daily Mobility: an Issue regarding Social Sex Relationships?

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The necessity for women's participation and commitment in planning

and decision-making processes

a European comparison

by Dr Dina Vaiou

National Technical University of Athens

Athens (Greece) 1994

1. Introduction

After two decades of feminist writing on "the urban question" it should be unnecessary to start by underlining the absence of women and gender from the analysis and understanding of urban development. However, understandings of how the urban environment is produced have only marginally been informed by such writing, while urban planning proposals continue to rely on assumptions which marginalise and render invisible the everyday lives and experiences of women in the city. The universal category of "public interest" - one of the everyday lives and experiences of women in the city. The universal category of "public interest" - one of the cornerstones of planning - has not so far included women in definitions of the "public.

There is by now ample literature to support the idea that women and men have different, though intersecting and sometimes conflicting, patterns of everyday life and modes of integration in the division of labour in society. Men's daily patterns are articulated around paid labour, in workplaces separate from home, and non-working time (leisure or recuperation) around home and in public spaces. Even when this is not the actual reality (eg. at times of unemployment or when men do part of the caring labour for the family), it continues to be a quite cleat and compelling representation and an important part of identities.

Women's patterns of everyday life on the other hand, their use of space and time, are much less clearly defined. Looking after the house and family, doing paid work in a separate workplace or at home, taking children to and from school activities, doing the shopping on the way to or from work, paying bills during work breaks, caring and minding for a family member who happens to be sick- and many other activities- are, as a rule, part of women's experiences. They overlap and transcend the boundaries of dichotomies such as home-workplace, leisure-employment, non-work, private-public- which inform thinking and proposals about urban development.

The specific content of these experiences differs between places, cultures and social classes or income groups. For example: different traditions of welfare state shift the boundary between what has to be performed within the family, what can be bought< in the market and what is part of state provision of services; different traditions of gender divisions of labour determine what is done or provided by women or by women or by men; the content and conditions of paid work are very different for a factory worker or a firm manager; the content and conditions of paid work are different for a factory worker or a firm manager; the equipment available in a house may alter the content of domestic chores; family networks may be crucial for day to day survival or less so.

Urban development, and the organisation of space in the city, is a context and an important component of such patterns and, from this perspective, it is crucial in understanding gender divisions in society. Urban space, in its broad definition as a part of social relations, affects differently women and men, much as these broad gender categories have to be qualified to take into account differences of place and divisions along the lines of class, race, culture.

The seemingly banal and trivial events of the everyday and the spatial arrangements in which, by definition, they take place are bound into power structures that contribute to reproduce gender relations and create differentiated conditions and opportunities for women and men in the city. But, although many have argued that space is fundamental in any exercise of power, few are prepared to admit that gender power is no exception.

In this context, decisions about the urban environment are important for women in their struggle to contest power relations. But women's involvement has not so far been as important as such an observation might suggest:

a) women are only marginally present in decision-making and not aware of gender issues involved in that process.

b) urban planning is one of the fields where women's concerns have not been taken on board and where knowledge and practice is male-biased while claiming to be general and gender-neutral. It is men's rather than women's activity patterns and priorities which underlie definitions of urban (much as other kinds of) problems or questions, as well as goals and ways of intervention.

c) women's mobilisations have only indirectly addressed questions of urban development and life in the city, beyond the "claim of the night" campaigns of the 1970s.

In what follows I will briefly examine how these concerns are taken into account (or not) in decisions about the urban environment, based on the findings of a research project in six EC countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, United Kingdom. These are countries with different traditions of welfare, planning systems, gender divisions of labour and patterns of women's mobilisation. In this respect, they present different contexts in which to study the issues in question. My presentation will focus on two privileged domains: Higher Education where "experts" on matters concerning the urban environment are formed, and Public Administration where policy is designed and implemented.

2. Women in figures

In the six countries under study, urban planning in Higher Education is either a separate field of study (F, G, UK) and/or part of departments (or faculties or institutes) or Architecture (all six countries). The close link with architectural education explains, at least in part, the emphasis on physical planning that characterises not only education but also policy making.

The presence of women is around 40% among students (of architecture and planning). The highest percentage was found in Greece (56%) and the lowest in the UK (32%), while in Germany there is a difference between universities and technical colleges (38%vs 40% women respectively) (table 1). These figures are already a major improvement in relation to the past, as is partially reflected in the membership of professional associations : women, there, are less than 20% (again Greece stands out, with women professionals around on third of membership).

Among teachers, women are clearly in the minority : they do not exceed 25% of teachers with full-time jobs and hardly reach 25% among part-timers. Here again Greece is an exception, with 42% of teachers being women. The picture, however, is everywhere worse if one looks at the higher status posts (professors and tenured contracts). In those cases women are less than 10%, practically meaning one woman (or none) in a department, since professors are not so numerous anyway. The opposite is the case with administrative staff - where women predominate, particularly among typists and librarians (table1). The proportion of women teaching urban planning is usually lower than their average presence among teachers. They are more numerous among those teaching social science courses and only marginally represented in courses of economics and technical subjects. Very few departments have so far included in their curricula courses that take an explicit gender- aware (or feminist) approach to the subject matter.

With the exception of the UK and Germany, very few departments have an equal opportunities policy in their recruitment and assessment practices. Reactions of the departments interviewed vary. There is some agreement that the gender balance can be improved, but not that there are inequalities or discrimination against women? No need for positive measures is acknowledged, since only criteria of academic performance must prevail.

In any case, such measures are not considered necessary since the presence of women is gradually improving, as past prejudices are overcome and more women qualify in the relevant fields.

Another set of "explanations" for numerical gender imbalances refers to women's "unwillingness" to enter academia, or even to apply for advertised posts. Discrimination, for most academics, encompasses only formal or overt discrimination and not all those indirect or hidden ways of being placed at an inferior position in society. Following many respondents views, since job advertisements are "gender-neutral", it is the responsibility of women to improve the situation.

In Public Administration of all six countries studied, as in the rest of the EC, there is no formal discrimination against women, following adaptation of national legislative frameworks to the Treaty of Rome. However, the presence of women in those parts of Public Administration where decisions about the urban environment are taken is still quite limited (table 2).

In the general figures, employees of all categories and ranks are included and, in that context, the proportion of women ranges between 25 and 56 %. But looking at the categories of professional staff, i.e. excluding administrative and secretarial posts where women are the overwhelming majority, the picture is less promising. This is particularly true with high rank posts, with more power of decision. In France, for example, there are less than 2% women "chefs d'équipe" while in Denmark there are 31 women and 121 in boards set up by the Ministry of Housing ; in Greece on the other hand, out of 13 Directors in the Ministry of the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works 7 are women and out of 32 heads of departments 19 are women.

Here again explanations of gender imbalances revolve around women's lack of commitment to their carriers - which is more important in higher levels of the hierarchy. Women "choose" not to accept posts involving increased responsibilities - and indeed power to decide - because they care more about their private lives and their families. Men on the other hand are more committed to their jobs and can stay longer hours at the workplace.

However, women themselves talk about the lack of support and the dispute of their qualifications, about the need to "moderate their expectations" in order to cope with multiple burdens, about male colleagues concern to establish connections and consolidate their position in the job - all of which point to different sets explanations, far removed from "choice", of imbalances of numbers.

It is interesting that in countries with different prevailing social attitudes on equality between men and women, different levels of recognition of gender inequalities, different presence of women's mobilisations, very similar attitudes prevail in the field and urban planning remains everywhere a male endeavour. This is the case both in the areas of decision-making within Public Administration and in Higher Education for future planners.

3. The issue of gender

In the different contexts of the countries studied, it would be no exaggeration to argue that gender is not considered relevant or important in questions of urban analysis, housing and planning. In approaches of urban planning as a technical project, focused on infrastructures, gender differences are completely out of the question. But the gender-blindness of much academic debate and professional activity is also deep-rooted in a humanistic tradition of planning. Here differences and inequalities are obscured in the universal category "Man", as a representation of all humans or of the average human being. They are also hidden in a conviction in the possibility of existence of a unique "public interest".

However, the notion of "public interest" has crumbled in the contradictions generated by economic restructuring and by competing interests in the city and conceptions of urban space; the "rational ordering of space" has quite often remained on paper and, at worst, has contributed to increase inequalities among parts of urban areas and social groups. In the emerging New Europe, earlier goals and priorities to control and forecast have been replaced by an emphasis on attracting, encouraging, facilitating and, if possible, orienting investment to particular places.

Despite such very fundamental changes, planning education still adheres, to great extent to its "modern" past, while the content and goals of planning are ever more defined by the market and remain insensitive to gender differences. In this context, responses to interviews from different countries converge on a number of issues, which render women and gender invisible - a secondary concern, if it becomes a concern at all.

a) The omnipresent "Man" is thought to be gender-less. His everyday life patterns are, implicitly or explicitly, define the norm, and his needs are taken to account for both men and women.

b) Not only is it believed that there can be one "public interest" common to women and men, white and black people, employers and workers, but also that planners can in fact identify it and plan for it - for an almost undifferentiated set of "human needs".

c) No gender difference is examined in issues like violence, safety, security, access to and control of public space, even though they definitely affect in very different ways women's and men's every lives and to the city.

The multiplicity of, and differences among, groups of humans - in terms of class, culture, ethnicity, gender - which result in different organisation of everyday time and space, and therefore define different needs, are thus rarely taken on board. When differences are analysed, it is more likely that age (children and elderly people) or bodily ability (disabled people) become a special concern in teaching or planning proposals. Or, as part of a left wing tradition of thinking about the city and the production of urban space, divisions along the lines of social class are studied, but not gender inequalities.

In the case of responses from Denmark, the general feeling is that "these issues have been dealt with very much" and that an adequate level of equality has been achieved in society - which justifies an approach in terms of "human needs" and not gendered needs. However, it is also admitted that women have to be much better everywhere to obtain the same as men, and also that change is slow and different roles still exist in practice.

In the German case, there are marked differences in the responses of man and those of women, in terms of the relevance of gender in teaching and planning practice. This is also the case with interviews from Greece; in this case reservations are expressed, even by women, that emphasising gender differences may lead to approaching women as "disabled people". Most respondents from Belgium and France recognise the importance of gender but believe that this is secondary to other, more important or general issues and cannot form part of a first set of priorities, either in teaching or in the profession.

4. By way of a conclusion

The pictures that emerges from this brief discussion is far from encouraging, both in terms of women's participation in decision-making and in terms of how gender informs the content of curricula and policies about the urban environment. It is true that the centralised workings of public administration do not provide a positive framework for women's participation and discourage the introduction of "novel" issues and perspectives. In cases where decisions about the urban environment are taken in a more decentralised context, women tend to participate more actively. The difficulties are no lesser in higher education with its long established tradition of male authority and the legacy of men being both the subject ant the object of scientific enquiry and teaching. Areas of intervention are therefore manyfold, at the level of institutions, as well as at the level of self-organising and action.

With formal discrimination being effectively abolished, the difficult part remains of how to get message through. In a more immediate and short-term perspective, revising hiring and firing policies, promotion strategies and divisions of power would help women have fairer share in public administration and in the universities, as in every workplace. Despite the controversies around 'equality', such practices have a part to play in making the issues formal and gender divisions visible.

Equality here is not linked to some notion of a unique, universal " Woman" being made equal to "Man". It is rather meant to underline the need to acknowledge, value and respect women's diverse histories, experiences and prospects which are different from, but not less important than, men's.

To this end institutional intervention will have little chance to be effective (or even to start in the first place) if it is not promoted and fought for by women's campaigns and networking. Existing initiatives need to be re-activated, expanded, systematically linked to others in order to broaden their scope and potential. And this requires not only to implicate women, but also to commit resources that will ensure their survival.

At lower levels of the planning process and within smaller spatial units (eg. local government, neighbourhood, housing development) it seems that women have better opportunities to develop alternative proposals and policy processes, both as experts and as users. At those levels it may be possible to work out principles that would inform urban policy. Such alternatives may help, in the short and medium term, reduce barriers to women's activity patterns and increase choices and opportunities. They may also involve women in urban problems: in what gets defined as a problem as well as in the directions in which solutions ate to be sought. Along these lines of raising awareness, gender may, in the long run, inform policy in more fundamental ways.

In this domain, a long way has to be transversed so that women become visible and gender divisions an issue in theory making and in teaching. Raising awareness - to a greater or lesser degree in each country and institution - seems a necessary first step, both among women and among men. To this end a lot of effort has to be committed: to re-discover women's histories in the making of cities, to expose the gender bias of "neutral" categories, to prepare relevant material for students and teachers to extend and to consolidate networks, to present research proposals and results. Through combined efforts to empower women in academia and permeate the content of teaching, the interrelations between socially constructed gender relations and socially constructed environments may eventually emerge from the shadows.

Much of the effort required for changes to be achieved depends on women's own organising and gradual building up of more permanent mechanisms of representing their distinct voices and perspectives. For, no achievement is permanent and every change has to be continuously re negotiated and reformulated. This is probably the greatest stake in the changing conjunctures of a unifying Europe.