Safety in public space women, girl and gender diverse people

For women, girls and gender diverse people, the city is a space that was not designed for us.

Manijeh Verghese said, we need to adapt to it, rather than have it reflect our needs. As we move through it, we are often filled with fear rather than confidence. We are forced to take the long way around rather than the straight route through. We walk quickly while thinking about how to weaponise our possessions rather than moving leisurely through spaces that are supposed to be designed for everyone. We carry this fear in our bodies every day whether we are aware of it or not.

Perhaps the problem is also that public space is an afterthought in the design of our cities. It is the leftover space and a place to mitigate the issues that weren’t reflected in the design of the nearby buildings. It is too often a catch-all solution that is overly sanitised, restricted and unwelcoming space. The recent Covid-19 global pandemic highlighted the importance of public space, when

It became the only place where we could ‘safely’ meet one another. But here, safety was defined just in terms of contracting the virus, and not by how long we would feel comfortable in a space with fewer people around, with a limited provision of public toilets and civic infrastructure, and nowhere else to go.

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