Women's Health and the World's Cities

Women are more likely to walk where they feel safe. That may be intuitive, but we now have the science to prove it. A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine demonstrated that women throughout the United States, in cities and in suburbs, are more likely to walk where they feel safe and have access to sidewalks and other community resources. Simply stated, more walking and more physical activity mean better health.

In urban planning in particular, consideration of women’s health and social needs is more important than ever. More than half the world’s population – approximately 3.5 billion people -- live in cities. By 2030 this number is expected to increase to almost 5 billion.

People move to urban areas seeking new opportunities, new options, freedom in choices, and better resources. Women in particular believe that they can improve their economic status and social position and find better opportunities for their children by seeking work and education in the cities. However, even as urbanization offers opportunities, the health of women in urban settings is challenged.

Unfortunately, the effects of urban development and gender have received little attention. In Women’s Health and the World’s Cities, my collaborators Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter and I called on scholars and practitioners from the fields of urban planning, global studies, and health sciences to consider urban planning from the perspective of women’s health and to examine the effect of urbanization on women and their health.

Urban planners must consider five forces in planning and developing urban areas in order to improve women’s lives:

1. Developing cities with women’s needs in mind. Women want to live in safe environments with better lighting, lower population density, and space that permit connections and allow them to provide the care that their roles demand to meet the needs of their children, friends, partners, elders, and other family members. This means providing access to resources for their children’s needs as well as elders’ needs. Improving conditions in or replacing slums, where many women newcomers to the city live, must be part of urban planning and development.

2. Focusing attention on the sociocultural context and religious mores that drive, and often dictate, women’s movements, educational and working options, and housing needs.
Developing urban areas in religiously conservative Muslim or Jewish communities or in socially strict societies requires different criteria and guidelines that determine the physical and social capitals and hence the space configurations.

3. Including women’s voices in planning decisions. Women should be key players in the policies and plans used for the development of communities. Involving women in policies related to urban planning and development ensures that their perspectives, needs, and voices are included in designing spaces with women’s needs in mind.

4. Developing a conceptual framework that provides a structure for systematically investigating gender and impact -- or lack of it -- on urban environments as well as on health and well-being. This would drive the design and translation of research programs into gender-sensitive urbanization development plans.

5. Understanding that all of these empower women and give them voice.

Contemporary urban planning must address questions that reflect the differences between men and women in urban living and the differences in health outcomes among those who live in urban areas with differential incomes. As the 21st century unfolds, urban planning must be sensitive to defining and investigating the nature of gender disparities that are characteristic of those who live in urban areas. Careful urban planning provides a momentum to empower women and to enhance the quality of their lives. More accessible education, healthcare, and resources bolster women’s abilities to fulfill their caregiving roles.

Preventing urbanization’s spatial, social, and health risks for women through careful advance planning will be far more effective and productive than intervening after the fact.

Afaf Ibrahim Meleis, PhD, DrPS (hon), FAAN, FRCN, is Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing and Professor of Nursing and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and co-editor of Women’s Health and the World’s Cities with Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter.