Urbact - Gender Equal Cities

Gender disaggregated data is key to combating inequality and gender blindness , the disregard of gender as a significant factor shaping all aspects of public and private life. In order to understand the gendered dimension of the city, it is necessary to be able to see and interpret real differences, for instance in pay, household income, family structure, business ownership, housing tenure, health, education, and use of services such as public transport. There is no clear picture of how much gendered data is available at city level across the EU. However, those cities that have effective systems in place to gather and make use of gender data from multiple sources

19 ANDREOLA, F.; and MUZZONIGRO A. (2021), Milan Gender Atlas , available at: https://www.letteraventidue.com/ en/prodotto/508/milano-atlante-di-genere

(e.g. statistics, consultation and observation) are in a better position to make strides towards equality by then applying these insights in their gender mainstreaming strategy. Data and knowledge gaps not only relate to different policy areas, but also to experiences and needs that often go unrepresented or which are invisible with standard data collection methods. How much is really known, for example, about how a transgender woman, a sex worker or an undocumented migrant navigate the city? Bringing their needs into the policy making evidence base is part of creating a fairer city.

The Milan Gender Atlas [Milan, Italy] Space is not neutral. This reality guides the work of the Milano Urban Center19. In partnership with the municipality of Milan, the project Sex & the City - Milan Gender Atlas highlights the importance of collecting gender disaggregated data. The team conducted a large online survey to study gender differences in many spheres of public life, including care work, mobility patterns and perceptions of insecurity. The aim of this research is not to define a female model that perpetuates the conditions that imprison women in the cage of care, but to observe the very patterns, systems and services that practices of care generate in public space, in order to make them available and feasible to anyone who takes charge of them, regardless of gender, says Azzurra Muzzonigro, one of the authors of the atlas. The resulting book, the Milan Gender Atlas , features, for example, gendered city maps that highlight networks of public services used by women, spaces that women feel uncomfortable in, or subway lines indicating the availability of elevators along routes.

Urban planning that is attentive to all differences including gender nearly guarantees a solid network of quality public services that support the needs of all the

bodies that inhabit the urban space.

The city of Milan is now working to incorporate the learnings from the project into their gender mainstreaming approach.

[ CALL TO ACTION ] Do you want to learn more about how greater capture, analysis, and use of data catalyses gender equality? Check out the website, resource centre and the Big Data, Big Impact? Towards Gender-Sensitive Data Systems report by Data2X, a collaborative technical and advocacy platform collecting gender data.

Case Study