Last Friday was International Women’s Day, and I was blown away by the bombardment of stories and lessons from inspirational women all over the world.

(Side note: why can’t every day be International Women’s Day? This year it resonated much more strongly for me, and I think it’s because I’m starting to see a real shift happening in the workplace, with our leaders, well, showing leadership, and meaningful initiatives being implemented, making balance seem achievable).

Warning: not suitable for use by XX chromosomes

It’s been reported recently that more women die in car accidents, because the safety features have been designed for men’s body proportions.

Similarly, our homes and public open space are also not as safe for women, with women aged 25 – 44 in Australia more likely to be killed or maimed by domestic violence than any other risk factor.

Safer spaces

The development industry has a role to play to ensure that places are safe for women. When designing to CPTED* principles, apply a female-focused filter. For example, when I walk through one park late at night, I feel really safe, because there are a row of apartments which overlook me. On other routes, I’m terrified, because it’s just closed shops, and so I make eye contact with every street camera so they can find me if needed.

If you have community development programs, consider how these can have an element of connecting women to the assistance they need to escape from a domestic violence situation.

Diverse development

It’s common knowledge that teams and projects work better with diverse thought (which may be gender, cultural background, age or even different thinking styles or skill sets). Yet, I often see project proposals where the ‘meet the team’ page is a collage of white middle-aged men. I see these and cringe because the chances of the proposal being considerate of diverse customer needs is unlikely.

You can help #BalanceforBetter by ensuring that there are an equal number of women in your architecture, landscape architecture and development teams, including the companies you choose to engage with. Ideas are generated based partially on our own lived experiences, and so women design best for other women.

My challenge for you today is to question:

1. How are you involving women in the important, decision-making conversations?
2. How are you ensuring that we create spaces that are safe and useable for women and children?

May everyday by International Women’s Day!

*CPTED is crime prevention through environmental design and considers how we design our outside areas e.g. fences, parks, line of sight, to prevent crime.

References:
– Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2018. Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia, 2018. Accessed on 11.3.19 athttps://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/domestic-violence/family-domestic-sexual-violence-in-australia-2018/contents/summary
– Stavely, J. 2019. The reason why a woman is more likely to die in a car crash than a man is. Accessed on 11.3.19 at https://www.mamamia.com.au/car-crash-statistics/