Abstract
This chapter introduces diversity-blind urbanism and the concept of care work culturally, historically, and inherently performed mostly by women and indispensable for the development of families and societies. It has repeatedly been neglected by urban planning through history, consistently developing cities adapted to optimize “paid work” activity and forgetting the needs of women performing “unpaid work” tasks in the city. Urbanists are not aware of the considerable differences in the use of the city, infrastructure, space, and architecture between men and women due to the low visibility and appreciation given to the work associated with social reproduction. The spatial configuration of cities creates inequality for the most vulnerable, women, children, the elderly, and disabled populations. Inclusive urban design has the tools to improve the conditions in which people of all ages, gender, and capabilities interact with their environment with dignity and equality.
TopBackground
By 2030 the world’s population will have increased by more than 1 billion (Figure 1), bringing the total count to around 8 billion, with 97% of this increase taking place in emerging or developing countries, and reaching almost 10 billion by 2050 (UN DESA, 2019). In 1800 less than 4% of the global population lived in urban areas while today more than 50% do (Figure 2). The forecast is that 68% of the world population will be living in urban areas by 2050 (UN DESA, 2018).
Figure 1. Total world population growth and 2100 prospects
Key Terms in this Chapter
Second Demographic Transition: Was first postulated by Ron Lesthaeghe and Dirk van de Kaa in 1986 to explain interrelated changes in fertility, living arrangements, and marital patterns, in many countries of Western and Northern Europe ( Lesthaeghe, 2020 ).
Gender-Conscious Urbanism: Gendered methodological tools enrich the diagnosis of urban challenges by highlighting the social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions that gender carries in urban daily lives in different cultures. ( De Simone, 2020 )
Gender-Blind Urbanism: Urban planning does not see the evident differences between genders and therefore does not design for diversity.
Gerontological Urbanism: The sensitivity of urban designs is favorable to the aging population performed by environmental gerontologists, especially architects, urban planners, and environmental health professionals, with gerontological training.
Care Work: Tasks related to taking care of the family unit (the children, dependent, and the elderly) are crucial to allow social reproduction and the well-being of families.
Mobility of Care: New category for transport surveys that consider the gender dimension in urban mobility. The mobility of care analyzes the daily trips associated with care tasks, understood as activities carried out by adults for the care of minors and other dependents and the maintenance of the home. These tasks are statistically carried out by women, in most cases as unpaid work ( Sanchez de Madariaga & Zucchini, 2020 )
Demographic Reversal: Underlying forces of demography and globalization will shortly reverse three multi-decade global trends – it will raise inflation and interest rates but lead to a pullback in inequality ( Goodhart & Pradhan, 2020 ).