By Elena Dallorso

 

PARIS, 17 June. - (ANA) - Only 44.2% of the global urban population has convenient access to open public spaces. 

 

For women, the gap is even wider. Cities still aren't designed around how they actually live. 

 

Women still carry most care responsibilities, yet cities remain organised around linear home-to-work commutes rather than the fragmented routes of daily care. Work in Chicago has helped map these issues within specific neighbourhoods, but this reflects a wider challenge that cities around the world can learn from. 

 

Planning from a female perspective means imagining urban spaces where different needs and rhythms are recognised and connected. More broadly, it means building places attentive to the experiences of all citizens who actually inhabit the city. 

 

Looking at the city through women’s everyday lives changes what planners see: care, safety, access and time all become central. Studies based on mobile tracking data reinforce longstanding ideas showing that women’s movements are typically more fragmented because of unpaid domestic labour and caregiving. This is known as “trip chaining”. 

 

Women are more likely to make several linked trips in one journey: taking a child to school; travelling to work; shopping; visiting a relative; or accessing services.  

 

 

What does it mean to plan a city from a female perspective? 

 

 

Three issues stand out: planning around care, making mobility systems reflect real daily journeys, and designing safer public spaces. 

 

- Planning around care 

 

- Making mobility systems reflect real daily journeys 

 

- Designing safer public spaces 

 

It’s time to rethink urban planning – and give women a stronger role in shaping the places they use every day. Planning from a female perspective means connecting care, mobility, public space and safety, so that cities become safer, more accessible and more inclusive for everyone. - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/17 June 2026 - - -