Elkin insists the reluctance of men like Baudelaire , Benjamin , and Simmel to imagine a female flâneur comes from their inability to notice women acting in ways that didn’t fit their preconceived notions .

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As I tried to navigate an unfamiliar set of everyday routines as a new mom , the city was a physical force I had to constantly struggle against . Wasn’t the city supposed to be the place where women could best juggle the demands of their double and triple days of social reproduction , paid work , school , and myriad other roles ? Didn’t my PhD supervisor proclaim that a “ woman’s place is in the city ” ? 41 If that was true , why did every day feel like a fight against an enemy that was invisible yet all around me ?

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By providing a spatial solution to the temporary widening of women’s horizons , the public - private , paid - unpaid work divide could be “ naturally ” re - established between the sexes .

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Large houses , isolated from transit and other services , meant the stay - at - home wife and mother was required to perform a full - time domestic caretaker role , overseeing the home and managing the needs of the breadwinner and children . As feminist planner Sherilyn MacGregor states , this built form has “ created a lasting infrastructure for the [ gendered ] division of labour , ” one that pre - supposes the traditional heterosexual nuclear family . 46

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The isolation , size of the family home , need for multiple vehicles , and demands of child care can continue to push women either out of the workplace or into lower - paying , part - time jobs that mostly allow them to juggle the responsibilities of suburban life . It’s rarely the male breadwinner’s career that is sacrificed or downsized . After all , given the long - standing gender pay gap , it makes no sense to limit the man’s earning potential .

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Research in the 1970s and 1980s found women use the city more intensively than men , are “ more involved in work , neighbourhood and cultural activities than suburban women and most of these opportunities are lost when they move to the suburbs . ” 48

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critic Jane Jacobs challenged the prevailing idea that the suburbs were good places for women and children . She noted isolation , a lack of people on the streets , and car dependency as concerns that particularly affected women while also contributing to the decline of the public realm in general . 49

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Geographer Kim England writes that gender roles are “ fossilized into the concrete appearance of space . Hence the location of residential areas , work - places , transportation networks , and the overall layout of cities in general reflect a patriarchal capitalist society’s expectations of what types of activities take place where , when and by whom . ” 50

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This has meant that even though cities have a lot of advantages relative to the suburbs , they’re certainly not built with the aim of making women’s “ double shifts ” of paid and unpaid work easier to manage .

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“ What would cities look like if they were designed by mothers ? ” 55

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Gentrification is basically the process whereby working class , lower income neighbourhoods get taken over by middle - class households and businesses . There are a lot of causes and forms of gentrification , but my neighbourhood — the Junction — was experiencing a kind of start - stop slow motion transition when I first moved there in early 2000 .

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My own enrichment — completing higher education — relied in part on the availability of the underpaid labour of others ( delivery people , child care workers ) ,

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The traditional nuclear family is no longer the norm . Cities are full of blended families , complex kinship relations entailed by divorce and remarriage , lone parents , queer relationships , polyamorous families , foster families , migration of family members , non - family households , multi - generation households , empty nesters , and more . But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the way our cities and their suburbs are designed to function . Ideally , all of these diverse kinship networks could open up possibilities for sharing the work of social reproduction , care - giving , and child - raising in creative , even feminist , ways .

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Gentrification pushes out single parents , low - income people , and affordable services , scattering kin across the city .

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When I started my master’s degree with a child under one year of age and no way to afford day care ( wait lists for subsidized spots were outrageous ) , I scrambled to find time to complete my work . Luckily , I met Anneke . We had classes together and discovered that we were both the primary caregivers for very young kids . I started bringing Maddy to Anneke’s house two days a week and we took turns watching the kids while one of us left for a few hours to study . The little bit of extra time afforded by what I liked to call the “ city’s smallest babysitting co - op ” made a huge difference .

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Under neoliberalism , most of the “ solutions ” generated for those problems have been market - based , meaning they require the ability to pay for extra services , conveniences , and someone else’s underpaid labour .

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In Europe , “ gender - mainstreaming ” approaches to urban planning and budgetary decisions have a longer history . Essentially , these frameworks mean that every planning , policy , and budget decision has to be considered with the goal of gender equality as the departure point . For example , policymakers must ask how a decision will potentially enhance or undermine gender equality . These approaches push cities to consider how decisions support or stymie the care work that literally keeps society functioning .

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The vice mayor of Stockholm , Daniel Helldén , described the plan to Canadian media , arguing that instead of plowing in ways that reinforce car - centred behavior , Stockholm’s method encourages everyone to use alternative modes of transportation . Instead of replicating the status quo , their plan looks forward to “ how you want your city to be . ” 77

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Geographer Brenda Parker writes compellingly about the experiences of low - income African American women in Milwaukee . 80 Parker argues that gentrification and cutbacks to urban social services result in “ amplification ” and “ intensification ” effects on the everyday lives and labours of these women , effects that get written on the body in the form of exhaustion , illness , and chronic pain .

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Low - income racialized women are more vulnerable to displacement , getting pushed into under - serviced areas where the benefits of urban living — interconnected access to places of employment , schools , services , retail , transit , and home life — are decidedly thinned out .

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Black feminist writers like bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins , who contend that Black women’s social reproductive work has mostly been subject to punitive measures by the state , such as having children taken away or being subject to “ workfare ” policies . 86 Feminist activism around domestic labour has typically centred the white , heterosexual married woman and ignored the particular needs and concerns of women of colour .

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Homeplaces are political spaces that black women create to express care for each other and their communities , and to remember , revise , and revive scripts of black political resistance . ”

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An urban politics of care is enacted not only through an attachment to place , but as “ an active and collective working toward physical , symbolic , and relational transformations . ” 90

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And let’s face it , relying heavily on the state for radical transformation is a waste of time , and perhaps even dangerous for Black and Indigenous people and people of colour who have been deemed expendable or positioned as “ problems ” to be solved or disposed of in the “ progressive ” city . Isoke’s study illustrates the power of forging alliances across diverse communities to combat racism , sexism , and homophobia to “ confront and transform [ the ] structural intersectionality ” of oppressions in the city . 91 I want cities to enact policies and create spaces that make care work and social reproduction more collective , less exhausting , and more equitable .

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It’s clear that the time has come to decentre the heterosexual , nuclear family in everything from housing design to transportation strategies , neighbourhood planning to urban zoning . This means that city planners and architects can’t take the white , able - bodied cis man as the default subject and imagine everyone else as a variation on the norm . Instead , the margins must become the centre .

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A feminist city must be one where barriers — physical and social — are dismantled , where all bodies are welcome and accommodated . A feminist city must be care - centred , not because women should remain largely responsible for care work , but because the city has the potential to spread care work more evenly . A feminist city must look to the creative tools that women have always used to support one another and find ways to build that support into the very fabric of the urban world .

Chapter 2: City of Friends

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The power of female friendship is typically either underestimated , undermined , or ignored all together in cultural narratives . There are few examples that speak to the importance of women’s friendships in relation to life in the city .

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For far more ordinary women , friendships are also part of our urban survival toolkits .

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“ What would female friendship as a way of life look like ? ” 92 Work highlighting the complexity of female friendship is much rarer than movies , television shows , and books that gloss over women’s friendships to focus instead on romantic relationships , family lives , and dramatic life events .

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They must develop their own strategies for avoiding adult surveillance and gaining permission to explore , including using the power of friendship to assuage parental fears about girls alone . Girls can even work together to make direct claims on the city . For example , girls in Hanoi formed a collective to create ‘ zines to educate bus drivers and passengers about girls ’ safety from harassment on public transit . In Kampala , a youth collective fought to improve hygiene in the city as well as more walkable infrastructure to make sure girls could continue to go to school or work . 104

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Erin Wunker suggests that prioritizing female friendship , even writing about it or representing it on the screen , is an act of insurgency that starts to unmake the tightly woven cloth of heter - onormativity , capitalism , reproductive labour , and domesticity . 118

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Women make friends in the suburbs , sure . But the design of the suburban landscape encourages a private , inward focus .

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the suburban woman may have few opportunities or needs to make new friends or keep up with old ones .

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Historically , lesbians have struggled to find space in cities , as gay neighbourhoods typically focused on the interests and lifestyles of young gay men .

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Women’s friendships are starting to be recognized for providing things that romantic partnership ( especially with men ) might not , such as a shared set of experiences and even a strong feminist foundation . And cities are providing the environments where women can make and sustain these connections , perhaps even over the course of a lifetime .

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how could we create or repurpose spaces , especially urban spaces , in ways that open up a wide range of possibilities for sustaining and practicing the kinds of relationships that we think will support us across the life course ?

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It’s a challenging question with a lot of roadblocks in the way of an answer . Friendship , such a central preoccupation of childhood and adolescence , isn’t taken as seriously in adulthood , and of course it exists in an informal and unstructured context . Unlike marriage , it’s not recognized by the state and there are no formal or legal bonds of friendship . This is probably as it should be , but even without a “ friendship license , ” adult friendships could be considered among the relationships and values important to the imagining of urban places .

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Feminist urbanists claim that there’s an “ entrenched old guard wedded to old paradigms , uninterested in testing or exploring new ones ” unless they involve fancy algorithms and big data . 132

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Certainly we could make an economic argument around women’s friendships . As Traister observes , women socializing together fill restaurants , bars , shops , and cafés from brunch until closing . She recalls moving to New York and watching women take up space together : “ They — we actually — were sucking up every bit of energy from this city’s sidewalks , populating its streets and its theatres and its office buildings and apartments , giving this city its character and its rhythm and its beauty and its speed . ” 133

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It’s still a long way from a city set up to nurture , enhance , and even rely on women’s friendship networks as an integral and deeply necessary part of everyday life .

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don’t think we can rely on urban policy and planning to sustain or generate the kinds of spaces that allow non - traditional relationships to flourish . Planning paradigms and property regimes that favour particular kinds of ownership are slow to change .

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Furthermore , in most cities , the private real estate market determines what kinds of spaces are built , which businesses survive , and even which services will be provided .

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We should never underestimate the power — and the threat — of challenging the centrality of the nuclear family , culturally , legally , and spatially .

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Wunker insists that a focus on friendship has revolutionary potential . It defies patriarchal logics : “ There are bodies with other bodies — laughing , crying , cooking , dancing , hugging — with no imperative to procreation or other reproductive labours . Friendship as counter to capitalist ideology . Friendship as its own economy . ” 135

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Perhaps imagining the city centred on friendship seems impossible simply because of this : if women dedicated even a little bit more of their love , labour , and emotional support to their friend networks , the system — as men know it — would come crashing down . It’s a radical prospect to consider , and one that profoundly decentres both the family and the state . TallBear insists :

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If women , Indigenous people , people of colour , queer , and trans folks insist on valuing and re - centring relations that have been systematically undermined , the status quo inevitably tilts in ways that are frightening and fantastic . This is a huge step toward the feminist city , the city that values women’s relationships , decentres the nuclear family , and lets women and girls take up space and make relations on their own terms .

Chapter 3: City of One

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I love having my headphones and music with me in the city too , but for me and many other women , they provide more than a form of entertainment . They may be small , but they create a social barrier against the all - too regular and almost always unwanted intrusions of men .

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How to Talk to a Woman Wearing Headphones illustrates ( some ) men’s inability to acknowledge that women have the desire or the right to exist in public space by themselves , for themselves .

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After CNN cited a Runner’s World142 study on harassment with a headline claiming that a “ startling number of women say they have been harassed while running , ” 143 women on social media responded with incredulity : “ Startling to whom ? ”

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always temporary and must be jealously guarded .

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I feel confident that men will respect my autonomy and safety , I won’t apologize for wearing my anti - social earbuds .

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It takes an enormous amount of mental energy to navigate the public and private spaces of the city alone as a woman .

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She believed that the ability to feel safe while alone amongst millions of strangers was the ultimate marker of a city’s livability .

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People of colour are made to feel like trespassers or criminals in their own cities , risking harassment , arrest , and even violent death for simple acts like hanging out at Starbucks or asking to use a public washroom .

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Think of the difference in body language and posture of a woman riding the subway versus the ubiquitous “ man - spreader ” who sits down and opens his legs so wide that he either occupies more than one seat or forces those around him to curl up into themselves . Women are socialized not to take up space , especially as individuals . The best we hope for is to slip under the radar .

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The conundrum is this : a woman alone is presumed always available to other men .

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It links back to notions of women as men’s property . If a woman out in public isn’t clearly marked as property by the presence of another man or obvious signals such as wedding rings ( which of course may symbolize non - heterosexual unions as well ) , then she is fair game .

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that women are made to feel like “ guests ” at best in the city , knowing that they’re effectively in men’s territory and could be seen as trespassing if they do not “ comport themselves in particular ways . ”

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A woman or non - binary person or gender - fluid person who isn’t chasing particular standards of femininity isn’t there to please or appease heterosexual men . Therefore , they’re threats . They don’t belong . They’re not behaving like property .

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The gendering of “ separate spheres ” meant that production could be aligned with the world of men and consumption with the world of women .

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While standards for proper femininity have loosened somewhat since Victorian times , the range of places where women can be comfortably alone without seeming “ out of place ” isn’t so different .

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Although women today aren’t as restricted as dear Sophie Hall , who wasn’t even allowed to be seen eating or drinking in public , spaces of consumption , culture , and entertainment are still considered the most appropriate venues for women’s public lives .

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Although today women are much more free to move within these spaces in the same ways as men ( depending of course on social class and race ) , women remain acutely aware that to be alone outside of these “ sanctioned ” spaces is to be made vulnerable to unwanted attention and the threat of violence .

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The Nook was a clear example of what urban sociologists have called “ a third place . ” 164 These are places that are neither home nor work , but are essential informal gathering spaces for communities . In her study of how Canadian urban dwellers

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writes : “ If there’s any revolution happening in public bathrooms now , it’s being driven by the transgender community . ” 172 While disability advocates succeeded in making changes to the physical form of bathrooms such that accessible stalls , sinks , and doors are mandatory features of all new buildings , trans people are at the forefront of what will likely be the next big change in bathroom access : the partial desegregation of bathrooms by gender and the rise of more single user , all - gender / gender - free toilets .

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Like so many other issues in cities and beyond , social changes are also required . Single stalls won’t eliminate transphobia or end gender - based violence . In the meantime , however , ensuring the greatest possible bathroom access for all bodies across gender , ability , and class is a necessary step in creating a feminist city .

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The right to take up space is where the pleasure of being alone meets a wider politics of gender and power .

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Being socialized to go unnoticed affects women’s inclination ( or lack thereof ) to take up public roles and voice their opinions , whether that’s through running for political office , becoming a professor , or being vocal on the Internet .

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city . Just as patriarchy is enshrined in the urban environment , white supremacy is also the ground upon which we walk .

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The extent to which anyone can simply “ be ” in urban space tells us a lot about who has power , who feels their right to the city is a natural entitlement , and who will always be considered out of place .

Chapter 4: City of Protest

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Cities have been the primary sites of activism for most of the major social and political movements of the last two centuries . Combining a critical mass of people with the ability to take a message directly to the halls of power ( governments , corporations , Wall Street , international organizations , etc . ) and access to communications and media , cities offer the right mix of resources to make protest visible and effective .

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Activism , and public protest specifically , has connected me to cities and to my feminist politics in such critical ways . Long before I knew of the leftist urban concept of “ the right to the city , ” participating in protests brought my sense of belonging in the city alive and confirmed my righteous indignation at the widespread injustices that affected not just my life , but the lives of millions of others .

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Protest events have always refueled that anger and my commitment to change in ways that keep me energized as a scholar and a teacher .

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Protests are never without their own internal struggles and contradictions , all of which have pushed me to consider anew what feminism is and what feminist spaces look like .

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With perspective , age , and more exposure to critiques from Black and Indigenous people , people of colour , disabled people , and trans folks , I have a better appreciation for

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how protest spaces can and do reproduce systems of privilege and oppression , as well as violent practices .

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Women’s anti - violence actions in the city take place in a world where the police are seen as indifferent bystanders at best .

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While the # MeToo movement has been largely associated with an online presence and high - profile survivors telling their stories , women across the world have seized this moment to heighten their mobilizations against harassment and gendered violence and to protest the failures of the police , criminal justice systems , and other institutions to counter violence . The hashtag # Cuéntalo ( “ tell your story ” ) emerged in response to the acquittal of five men on rape charges in Pamplona in June 2018 , spreading to Latin America and galvanizing women to respond to high rates of femicide and perceived impunity for perpetrators .

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In other words , I was learning that feminist politics in the city were fraught with entangled power relations .

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By the time we noticed these dynamics , everyone had settled into their “ strike roles , ” and it was hard to challenge the patterns that were established . It was the traditional hetero - patriarchal family come to life at an urban intersection .

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Women are often found doing the on - the - ground , physical , emotional , and domestic labour . Women go door - to - door to raise awareness , they print the flyers , they make the sandwiches , they get the permits , they write the press releases .

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Women care for the emotions of others and sustain the relationships between members of the movement . 192 Occupy Edmonton activist Chelsea Taylor described the habits of men at their 2011 Occupy camp : “ narcissistic posturing , poor listening , an aversion to menial tasks . ” 193 Even more disheartening : women often face danger from fellow activists . Sexual harassment and abuse is an open secret in many movements , but women are often encouraged to keep silent for the sake of the cause . 194

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I realized this was a choice women throughout history have had to make : be politically active , with all of its risks , or perform your duties as a caregiver in the private , depoliticized space of the home .

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Women have balanced motherhood and political activism by bringing our kids when we can , but we face censure for doing so and always worry about our kids ’ safety .

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Women made international headlines in 2018 just for being pregnant while in office . New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is one of the very few female heads of state ever to become pregnant in office .

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Yes , I was there to study and hopefully support the efforts of community organizations to resist displacement . But I was also contributing to gentrification through my very presence and perhaps undermining the movements I wanted to learn more about .

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that being a women’s studies student might actually make other feminists distrust me , rather than see me as an obvious ally with the same commitments to social change . It had never occurred to me that my education would be anything but an asset in feminist social movements . I was shaken , but I was being schooled in intersectionality .

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Many in the mainstream queer community see Pride as a time of pure celebration and believe that police marching in the parade represents progress , inclusion , and acceptance . BLM - TO and their supporters argue that policing represents a “ clear and present danger for them ” and that a failure to recognize this is a failure to include Black and Indigenous people , people of colour , trans people , sex workers , and poor people in Pride . It’s

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Like all activists and politically - committed scholars I’ve had to learn the hard way ( which is the only way , really ) that you’ll encounter more contradictions than resolutions in your work , especially when your privileges become salient . As I moved from being a student to a full - time academic , my commitment to the intersection of feminist politics and right to the city movements has had to find new modes of expression . I get to stand in front of a classroom and initiate conversations about police violence , sexual harassment , rape culture , LGBTQ2S + spaces , ableism , settler colonialism , and dozens of other politically - charged topics . I try to cultivate and support student activism at every opportunity . I’m committed to union solidarity . But I’d be the first to say that sometimes you just need to be a body out in the streets . Rights aren’t won and defended in a classroom , on social media , or even via electoral politics . The work has to happen on the ground .

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History is clear that social change doesn’t happen without some form of protest , and indeed most of the improvements in women’s lives in cities can be traced back to activist movements .

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I’ve learned a lot about how to protest over the years , but more importantly , I’ve learned that a feminist city is one you have to be willing to fight for .

Chapter 5: City of Fear

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Fear of crime has always been assumed to be a public phenomenon , an assumption that itself suggests a lack of gendered analysis from the outset .

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If your best explanation is that the feelings and behaviour of a huge group of people are irrational , you’re likely not digging deep enough into the phenomenon .

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Feminist scholars also point out that sexual assault is grossly underreported , suggesting that rates of violence against women are massively underestimated using statistics based on reported crimes . The experience of prior assault is also likely to leave women with an intensified fear of future assault . The very everyday experiences of catcalling and sexual harassment serve to reinforce fear as women are constantly sexualized , objectified , and made to feel uncomfortable in public spaces . 210 Geographer Hille Koskela observes that “ sexual harassment reminds women every day that they are not meant to be in certain spaces . ” 211

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From a feminist perspective , this difference in attention serves to direct women’s fear outwards , away from the home and family , reinforcing patriarchal institutions like the nuclear family and women’s reliance on heterosexual partnership for the appearance of security . In a vicious cycle , this stigmatizes violence experienced within the “ safe ” space of the home and drives it further out of sight .

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“ women’s fear is highly rational . ” 212 Instead of trying to locate some internal cause or explanation for women’s fear , feminists are more interested in situating it within broader structures , systems , and institutions . And this leads to the question , “ why is women’s fear so deeply embedded , socially and culturally ? ” The only explanation is that it serves some kind of social function .

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Fear restricts women’s lives . It limits our use of public spaces , shapes our choices about work and other economic opportunities , and keeps us , in what is perhaps an actual paradox , dependent on men as protectors . This all works to prop up a heteropatriarchal capitalist system in which women are tied to the private space of the home and responsible for domestic labour within the institution of the nuclear family . It’s a system that benefits men as a group and upholds the status quo very effectively .

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Because geography helps us to answer the question how . How does gendered social control actually work ? How does it play out on the ground and how is it enforced ?

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But since we have very little control over the presence of men in our environments , and can’t function in a state of constant fright , we displace some of our fear onto spaces : city streets , alleyways , subway platforms , darkened sidewalks .

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It’s psychologically draining to second guess our choices , wondering if we’ll be blamed if something bad happens . 216 Sadly , we’re right to worry about this . Studies of media reporting on violence against women — public and domestic — have found that the media implicitly question the survivor’s actions , mental health , history , and habits , especially if the victim is Black , Indigenous , or marginalized in some other way . 217

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Our socially reinforced fears keep us from fully inhabiting the city and from making the most of our lives on a day - to - day basis .

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The economic logic of a sexist , racist , trans - and homophobic , ableist society operates on the unspoken assumption that economic and other forms of power must first be maximized for white , straight , cis , able - bodied men .

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From pushing for simple changes to urban architectural features to advocating for an overhaul of the entire field of urban planning , feminist geographers , planners , anti - violence workers , and others have made substantial , if incomplete , progress toward creating safer , less fearful , cities .

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For example , Tokyo and Osaka have train lines with carriages set aside at particular times for women , disabled people , children , and caregivers . Mexico City , Cairo , and Tehran have similar accommodations . Of course , critics point out that simply segregating women doesn’t require men to change their behaviour or attitudes .

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These changes didn’t come about naturally . Women were pushing for cities to take gendered concerns , especially safety , seriously . But getting municipalities and specifically urban planners to listen to the experiences of women and other vulnerable citizens has been an uphill battle . Planning considers itself an objective , rational , and scientific field of study and practice . It’s oriented toward managing or encouraging growth and development and to providing services to a faceless imagined “ citizen . ”

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Oscar Newman’s CPTED approach is well known for his concept of “ defensible space , ” the idea that physical characteristics such as building architecture and site layout will allow residents to be active in crime prevention by giving them a sense of control and territoriality . 226

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women are afraid in enclosed and open spaces ; in busy places and empty places ; on transit and while walking ; isolated under a bright light or invisible the dark . 228 What’s a criminologist or urban planner to do ?

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So , while feminists have certainly campaigned for changes to the built environment , they’ve never lost sight of the fact that women’s lack of safety exists within an interlocking network of domination that facilitates the social control of women and other less powerful groups in the city . Under these conditions , fear can never simply be “ designed out . ”

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hard to overestimate the effect of daily fear . Even when fear isn’t actively present , the burden of a set of routinized precautions is always there , although they’re so naturalized that we barely notice we’re doing them . What’s amazing , and typically overlooked , is the fact that women constantly defy their fears and act in ways that are brave , empowered , and liberating in cities .

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Koskela notes another fascinating phenomenon : even when women’s decisions to act bravely work out well ( i.e . , no harm comes to them ) , they don’t interpret these moments as signs that they’ve made well - informed , rational choices based on experience , the data at hand , and their own gut instincts . Rather , they re - interpret the situation as one where they did something “ stupid , ” but “ got away with it . ”

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Only perpetrators are responsible for the harm they cause .

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Public and design interventions rarely address private violence . The perceived separation between public and private also means that these problems tend to be addressed independently , without much thought to how public and private ( themselves vastly oversimplified social and spatial categories ) influence and produce one another . 232

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Thus , any policies , practices , and design changes meant to increase safety must take a hard look at how different members of society will be affected . It may be impossible to find a one - size - fits - all solution , but we still have to take an intersectional approach whenever possible . It’s also true that relying on cities to have women’s backs hasn’t worked out all that well . I’m thinking of the disturbingly widespread practice of altering police statistics to make crimes against women , especially sexual assaults , disappear .

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the police deliberately misrepresented reports of sexual violence , especially rape , by categorizing these reports as either “ unfounded ” or simply “ investigation of person . ” 235 Up to one third of crimes had been miscoded .

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Connecting gentrification and gender violence , Winifred Curran notes that by making rape invisible , Philadelphia could market itself as one of the best and safest cities for young , single professionals , including women . 236

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In 2017 , Canadian reporter Robyn Doolittle exposed the shockingly common use of the “ unfounded ” label by police forces across the country , sparking reviews of this practice in almost every jurisdiction . Some

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The true extent of gender - based violence remains unknown in part because our institutions seem highly invested in minimizing these crimes .

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cities are rarely dedicated to becoming truly safer for women . Instead , the appearance of safety comes to stand in for the end goal .

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Making cities seem safe for women also tends to make them less safe for other marginalized groups . Efforts to “ clean up ” downtown areas and “ revitalize ” residential and retail districts are typically accomplished through a combination of aesthetic measures ( beautification projects ) and the active removal of groups of people that have been marked as symbols of disorder , danger , crime , or disease .

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Historically , entire communities of people of colour , especially Black people , were razed in the name of urban renewal , including Halifax’s Africville and Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley . Today , less overt practices involve the targeting of homeless people and sex workers through criminalization .

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“ carceral feminism ” is partly to blame : a version of anti - violence work that calls for harsh punishments and relies on the police and criminal justice system to solve gender - based violence . 238 In her book Arrested Justice : Black Women , Violence , and America’s Prison Nation , 239 African American Studies professor Beth Richie notes that while some women have seen their safety improve over the last few decades , women with less power are “ in as much danger as ever , precisely because of the ideological and strategic direction the anti - violence movement has taken during the buildup of America’s prison nation . ”

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We may not know exactly what a safe city looks like , but we know that it won’t involve private safety measures . It won’t rely on the police to prevent or adequately investigate crimes . It won’t throw sex workers , people of colour , youth , or immigrants under the bus to create the appearance of safety . It won’t be centred on the needs and desires of privileged white women . And it won’t expect physical changes to undo patriarchal dominance .

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At a minimum , an intersectional approach that starts from the needs and perspectives of the most vulnerable will be required . Listening to and believing women will be standard practice . An understanding of the interconnections between private and public violence will increase . Rape myths and rape culture will be dismantled . Fear will not be a tactic of social control . In a safe , feminist city , women won’t have to be courageous just to step outside the door . Our energies won’t be wasted on a million and one safety precautions . In this city , the full extent of what women have to offer the world can be realized .

City of Possibility

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Feminist urban activists and scholars pay attention to the body with a careful understanding that the body is a site where gendered , classed , raced , and sexualized urban power relations and politics play out . 241

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Your body “ keeps the score ” of moments of fear , harassment , violence , and unwanted contact . 244 It holds onto that sense of shock , the recoil , the

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disgust , and the anger that accompany deliberate , uninvited touch . Moments when fight or flight impulses kick in make stark imprints .

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While I think we can learn some valuable lessons from looking at neighbourhoods prior to gentrification or urban renewal , we need to set aside the rose - coloured glasses and notice who is missing from that picture of idealized city life .

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Planning to improve safety for women can’t reproduce carceral models that target poor people and people of colour .

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of the most transformative social movements of our time , ones that are shifting the kinds of conversations we can have about the future of cities and urban life .

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But once we begin to see how the city is set up to sustain a particular way of organizing society — across gender , race , sexuality , and more — we can start to look for new possibilities .

Notes and highlights forFeminist City Kern, Leslie

Chapter 1: City of Moms

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