Gender and the Built Environment Database
Regeneration: Oxfam's Work at Govan, UK
Regeneration didn't mean anything to them [the women being recruited to the project], it was like hearing that Marks and Spencer was coming to the area - you'll only go in if you can afford it. - ReGender (1) group member, Glasgow
Gender - the social and cultural identities and differences that males and females learn and reconstruct over their lives - lies at the heart of many issues that urban planning and regeneration works to tackle. Housing, transport, education, health and crime - in all of these areas men and women feel the impacts of programmes in different ways, yet when gendered needs are not considered regeneration targets can remain untouched and, ultimately, the daily struggles of local people continue.
If you use a pushchair, your experience of moving around an area is quite different from those who don't. Take children to school, or on the bus to go shopping, rather than getting in a car and driving to work, and you soon find out what is provided, and for whom, in city spaces. But regeneration planners often don't realise how important gender differences are.
For example, women will struggle to find work if all the new jobs are in out-of-town centres, as fewer women have access to a car than men. For women, it makes more sense to have housing, shops, and schools nearby so journey times are shorter and they can combine paid and caring work. Another example is safety and fear of crime (see case study on Safety in Public Urban Space). Boys are more likely to be at risk of violence in public places. Women are fearful of being alone outside at night, but more at risk of violence in the home. As WDS has shown, a safety audit carried out by local women can help solve problems like a lack of lighting in local parks and public spaces.
Greater Govan is a very diverse area of inner-city Glasgow, home to 28,000 people and a large proportion of ethnic minorities and refugees. It is also an area of high deprivation and poverty. There are few opportunities for young people and there was no women's group. In 1999 Greater Govan was designated as a Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP) area with the aim of tackling some of these problems and making the area a better place to live in. In 2001 the SIP began work with Oxfam's ReGender project, which aimed to support and train a grassroots group of women in Greater Govan.
Gender analysis was used as a tool to examine how urban regeneration money could be spent on improving and developing green areas in Greater Govan for women's benefit. They considered facilities and developments that would be needed in four of the local parks, which at that time were not meeting the needs of the local women. Initially the group came up with facilities that were related to their roles as parents, such as children's play areas and an indoor activities area. They did not separate their needs from those of their children. To help focus on their own needs, they thought about what childless women may want and need in the park. As a result, they came up with a list that would ensure this category of women would also benefit.
The list of facilities included safety features such as improved lighting, broader pathways based on the routes that people take (not on those that the planners decide), open spaces, weatherproof seating areas that are near but not in children's play areas, and improved transport links between parks. The result is a park plan that, rather than being based on assumptions or design conventions, has been drawn directly from the experiences of the women, making it more accessible and relevant to the local population.
The ReGender group's plan for the ultimate Govan Park
Anne Keegan with another Tea in the Pot member
Anne Keegan lives in Govan, one of the poorest areas in Glasgow. Anne and a group of other women were keen to learn more about regeneration programmes and build a better place to live in. With Oxfam's help they put together a questionnaire to find out what local people wanted. Each of the 158 responses said they wanted a women's drop-in. The group was amazed that the drop-in centre was not there already, and they could not believe that the local regeneration programme had not asked women what they needed.
Anne is now part of a flourishing women's group called Tea in the Pot. It has its own premises and runs a drop-in centre for women in Govan. It supports women to feel more confident, and take the first gentle steps towards making a difference in their community. Anne says: ‘I realise now that it's not just lone parents who have difficulties. Before I would have let others ask the questions, but now I think, "If you don't ask, you don't get!" I am involved in regeneration meetings I would never have had the courage to attend, had it not been for Oxfam's support. So get involved and make a noise!'
More women than men are involved in improving their communities at the grassroots level, but their voices and experiences are rarely heard at the top decision-making table, where men are more likely to play the key roles. The different barriers faced by women and men need to be understood if we are to move beyond ‘tickbox-style' consultation. Oxfam believes it is important that women at community level gain confidence to make their voices heard in decisions about their communities. Regeneration professionals need to recognise that local people are the experts on the issues they face.
What is ordinary people's daily experience of regeneration programmes? Oxfam has talked to women and men in regeneration areas in Scotland and England. It works with and trains regeneration practitioners to look at how regeneration programmes affect women and men. It has supported community groups and given training to the voluntary sector. It advocates for changes in regeneration practice from policy level down to the grassroots. Oxfam knows that the billions of pounds spent on regeneration would be more effective if decision-makers looked closely at the different ways poverty affects women and men.
Anne and Janice, Tea in the Pot members, address regeneration practitioners at Oxfam's conference in Glasgow, May 07
Participants in Oxfam ReGender's ‘gender and regeneration' training consider gender implications for planning new transport infrastructure
Zoe Smith, ReGender, Oxfam
1. ReGender is a project run by Oxfam's UK Poverty Programme which aims to increase the participation of women in urban regeneration initiatives and influence regeneration service providers and training bodies to integrate gender-aware policies and procedures into the planning and delivery of their programmes. For more information on ReGender see www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/ukpoverty/regender.html or call Zoë Smith on +44 (161) 861 2814.
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