Taking women’s 'different' bodily functions into account, particularly menstruation in sanitation provision

Whilst over two billion people lack adequate toilet provision, water supply, and sanitation, women are particularly badly affected. Women have fewer facilities to start with, but more toileting needs caused by biological differences particularly menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. For example, 50% of school girls in Africa leave school when menstruation starts because of lack of suitable school toilets. Over 50% of the world’s population is urbanized and of those, over 50% of urban dwellers live in shanty towns and unregulated settlements, most of which lack adequate sanitation provision, especially for women and girls travelling by public transport, working away from home, or going to school. Comparisons are made with the toilet situation in Western countries. Toilet provision is one of the last frontiers of gender inequality. Female toilet provision needs to be recognised as a key component of urban planning policy, in order to create sustainable, accessible and equitable cities

The Accessible Toilet Design Resource

This Accessible Toilet Design Resource has been produced from new primary research carried out within VivaCity 2020, a large university-based research consortium that is developing tools and resources to support the design of socially inclusive cities. The consortium is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It was set up in 2003 and will complete its work in 2008. The Resource is concerned primarily with the design of the accessible toilet cubicle that should be provided for customer or public use wherever there is standard toilet provision. Though it may make reference to other types of toilet cubicles, urinals, automatic public conveniences (APCs) or grouped toilet provision, the location and design of these facilities are not addressed in great detail here. The location and design of accessible toilet facilities merits this independent, detailed scrutiny because it is essential to provide these facilities and to design them correctly, so that disabled people can participate on equal terms to able-bodied people in every aspect of city life

The position of women in surveying

Chartered surveyors provide professional advice on all aspects of land use and development. Only 3% of surveyors are women, but they comprise over 15% of students. This study Investigates surveyors' attitudes towards women In the profession and society, and the implications for the nature of the built environment. A theoretical basis and model are developed, centred around the concept of a surveying subculture. The historical development of women's position In surveying is traced. The present day nature of surveying education and practice is Investigated based on a qualitative* sociological approach, using ethnographic methods and unstructured Interviewing. Examples from these sources are used to build up an Image of the subculture. to highlight conceptual linkages, and to illustrate the processes which determine women's vertical and horizontal progression and role, emphasising all the 'little' occurrences which are the building blocks of the subcultural edifice vis A vis women. Whilst these spatial (social) factors are central In Influencing what is built'. surveyors' 'spatial' attitudes to different land uses are also considered. The male majority obviously has the greater Influence on the built environment, but it was found that 'more$ women entering does not necessarily mean "better' or different'. Class could be as significant as gender: those who are the "right type" may be described as bourgeois feminist who seek to succeed in a man's world rather than alter It. Changes must be made within the organisational structure of the profession to enable more women to reach senior positions, and In surveyors" attitudes towards women and their needs. In order to alter the nature of the built environment for the benefit of Women whilst acknowledging the need to take fully into account the differences between and among women, as well as between man and women

User and provider perspectives on public toilet provision

Report prepared for Nuffield Foundatio

A relacao generificado entre o zonamento urbano do transporte public e as implicacoes para a provisao de banheiros publicos

The gendered relationship between urban land use transportation planning and the implications for the provision of public toilet

Gender equality and plan making: Gender mainstreaming toolkit

Report produced for RTP

Is more better?. Mark II - With reference to women town planners in Britain

This article discusses whether more women entering the town planning profession necessarily means improvement and forms a sequel to an earlier paper on women surveyors (WSIF 11(3) pp. 187-197). It is based on research currently being undertaken on the position of women in town planning, which investigates the present day situation, and reflects upon the historical record. First, although there are more women - percentage wise - in town planning than surveying, women's 'place' is constrained by the planners' world view, so that women planners fare no better than women surveyors in reaching senior positions which would enable them to have the power to shape the built environment. Second, it is often imagined that the 'women and planning' movement is relatively recent and that great progress has been made. It is argued in the second part of the article that this is not so, as women were ahead of the men in town planning matters a hundred years ago and were progressively excluded by the professionalisation of town planning. The present 'women and planning' movement is nothing but a pale shadow of what went before, narrowly confined within patriarchal governmental structures, and thus vulnerable to future marginalisation or control. © 1993