Quality of the urban environment and the perception of safety for women. Comparison between two neighborhoods in Cuenca, Ecuador

Abstract

Most cities have been planned and built based on a universal subject: a male, healthy, paid, and middle-aged worker. As a result, cities have become an environment that makes social inequalities visible as they hinder the daily lives of the most vulnerable groups. Among these groups are women. In this context, this research looks to present the results of a study that aimed at determining the influence of the quality of the urban environment on the perception of safety for women in two neighborhoods, with different quality of life indices, in the intermediate city of Cuenca, Ecuador. The case studies were the Rio Sol neighborhood, whose quality of life index is one of the highest in the city, and Ciudadela Los Eucaliptos, which, despite being only 500m from the previous one, has a medium-low quality of life index. Methodologically, 3 tools were applied: e-MAPS, to determine the urban quality of the two neighborhoods; an adaptation of the Urban Diagnosis with a Gender Perspective (DUG, in Spanish), to measure the safety perception of women; and non-participant observation. The results showed there are differences in the urban environment quality index between the two neighborhoods, but that these are not directly related to the perception of safety. Non-participant observation suggests that there are other factors that make up neighborhood life, that affect women's perception of safety.