Public spaces and women's mobility

Abstract

Public spaces and their relationship with women is a social dimension of a fundamentally geographical concept. This relationship has been increasingly scrutinised lately as the existing use pattern of public spaces and the mobility of women have come to the fore as important concepts guiding women's overall well-being. Generally, women have been seen as homely, belonging to the ‘private’ sphere of the space/place concept, whereas men belonging to the public. These gender defined roles impact the use of public spaces and have largely made the public spaces inaccessible for women in different communities across societies. Women's mobility and their access to public spaces are intricately related. With the patriarchal arrangement of gender norms and defined roles, the accessibility patterns largely favor men while putting women at a disadvantaged position from where they cannot take part in public life as freely as they should. Mobility patterns then have attached value for access to public spaces and they are guided by various factors such as transport systems, safety and security, socio-economic conditions in a city pertaining to education, health and jobs and bodily autonomy. This paper attempts to examine, through the review of secondary literature, these factors for developing an understanding about the relationship between women's mobility and their access to public spaces, as also the spatial variations in geographical terms. The paper also attempts to propose some policy recommendations in this regard.