“Building Feminist Towns and Cities – dismantling the structures of violence”

Promoting Women’s Agency in Developing Public Safety and Equity Guidelines in a post-COVID World was a CSW65 event convened by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) earlier today.

“We are working to building feminist towns, villages and cities. This is about agency, inclusion and solidarity” said Krishanti Dharmraj the Executive Director of CWGL as she introduced the session. The event, she explained has emerged from the annual 16Days campaign. 30 years on since the campaign started data has shown that there is a need to address both a woman’s space and public space including formal and informal work spaces – from community markets to parks and community halls, as well as public transport:

“In 2020, the shift to the 16Days Campaign is about accountability to recognize and acknowledge that women work with protect women and prevent violence 365 days per year”

For the 2020 16Days Campaign, 10 community leaders in Bahamas, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Morocco, USA and Yemen organized gatherings to develop collect information on harassment and violence that will contribute towards developing a set of global indicators on safety in public spaces. This initiative on Safety & Equity is a collaboration between CWGL and UNFPA.

Women, added Dharmaraj that the threat of violence and harassment is resulting in women censoring themselves – deciding if, when and where they go.

Women are forced to withdraw from these public spaces, because we are harassed. But are we going to withdraw? We must claim back all spaces” said Fatima Outlab of Morocco brought attention for the need for early education and community “Our children in school must be taught how to respect women and girls from an early age. There is also a need for gender responsive planning – our streets need light, our buses our overcrowded, our taxis are not safe either. Even now at my age I experience sexual harassment” The media, she added, has a role to play that can bring attention to the issue and create a shift from putting the blame on women, “The community, their families and neighbours are all responsible to ensure prevention, protection and respect including for the LGBTQ community”

“We are taking stock of ICPD and the Beijing Platform for Action and having a strong partnership is key and important and the current initiative in partnership with CWGL” UNFPA Nafissatou Diop Chief of Gender & Human Rights. She brought attention to UNFPA’s focus on safety in public transport saying “Transport is not gender neutral”

Irregular working hours and lower pay means women in both global north and global south are most reliant on public transport – but these tend to be designed for men and able-bodied persons “Travel patterns and preferences are not being taken into account. We need to spotlight the need of women and girls”. UNFPA she says is working to ensure women are accessing more public spaces.

“We need to focus on the progress paved the way by the women who have given us the rights and build on this to claim back our public spaces – we need to be have inclusive and equal spaces” said Venna Odhiambo from Kenya adding there is a need for public messages and campaigns including on information: “I agree with Fatima – school curriculum and activities like awareness forums can ensure young people grow up understanding the respect for everyone.”

In a complex city like New York, Jacqueline Ebanks of the Commission on Gender Equity added how the vulnerability increases for many of the participants in her local community circles as they step out of home – COVID19 she added to how public spaces are accessed. Building safety included education programmes, building the agency of women as well as including the homeless and other marginalized communities which if are not included can actually contribute to increasing insecurities. 

“It limits us how we experience life” added Ebanks, “and we are responsible for our spaces and our sister community across the globe.” 

Infrastructure such as proper lighting, access to public toilets and disability access is critical priority raised in all the community circles: “We need more gender-neutral public toilets and working water fountains” added Ebanks.

The issue of public spaces further addresses the complexities of the struggle for gender equality and there is a need to engage with male allies including community and religious leaders: “We need to include all stakeholders, to work on masculinities and positive parenting. Programmes must target and work with men on prevention, we need men and women’s voices and the role of the media is crucial” added Fatima Outaleb 

Ebanks added that there is an opportunity to learn from our her’story and political histories: “there must be institutionalized change across all platforms – non profit and private sector and public education as well means we have a constant cycle of learning. Leadership matters” explaining there is a need for government leaders, including local government leaders to be accountable and speak out for gender equity: “There is opportunity for sustained collaboration and partnership” 

In Fiji, public spaces include municipal markets are organized by local government and require vendors to pay stall fees (Lateef, 1994) as well as roadside markets which are typically organized on an ad hoc basis by farmers or their intermediaries, and may or may not be legal and subject to regulation by local authorities (Anderson, 2008). UNWomen (2020) identified that 40% of rural women in Fiji work as farmers or as farm labourers. Most rural women farmers are between 40 and 65 years, and that women however earn 25% less than their male counterparts. The report noted that for 77% of those in retail, vending in markets was their sole source of income. 85% of market vendors in Fiji are women, 61%t of whom are between 46 and 75 years of age. About 50% of Fiji’s market vendors are selling what they produce (vendor farmers). The community circle was convened in collaboration with the President of the Labasa Market Vendors Association and in collaboration with Transcend Oceania (the regional secretariat of GPPAC Pacific which conducts peacebuilding programmes with rural women leaders with a specific focus on the prevention of GBV).

I had the opportunity to bring together a group of 23 rural women who included tertiary students, market vendors, farmers, community leaders (volunteers), 3 participants work in the NGO sector, 7 of whom were young women (under 30 years) and 1 woman with a disability highlighted that public spaces include: village public ground (village rara); sports stadium, as well as bus station and buses. Most of the women, including the market vendors, live outside of the main town area and rely on the local bus service to travel to and from home. There is also a reliance on inter-island shipping.

• All the women agreed that there was a need for more well-lit, accessible, safe and clean public conveniences in the town

• There was agreement that while there has been a lot of focus on preventing and addressing domestic violence, participants agreed that women tend to blame themselves for any harassment they experience.  Young women are also being told to “dress appropriately” to avoid being harassed.


• The women agreed that there was a need to focus on community education with a focus on men and working with male leaders (traditional and faith leaders) to change attitudes and behaviour: “you should share with our husbands and sons – you can change the family, the community and the public”


• Greater attention was needed on prevention: “we are discussing what makes the news, but we also need to be equipped with information that supports our advocacy”


• While some women spoke about increasing police presence in town – the younger women said that young men/boys do not take the police seriously “we cannot depend on the police, so we need to protect ourselves”


• Many of the young women recommended public awareness campaigns and the use of a public space app to report incidents: “this should not be about waiting for workshops”

Ultimately indicators must be quantitative and qualitative and accountable to the UN Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). A key indicator is the allocation of resources to ensure women-led safety and protection programmes are resourced in disaster management coordination systems at national and local level as well as:

• # of National public education campaigns on the prevention of sexual harassment and catcalling in public spaces – developed in collaboration with specific target groups including young men


• # and how local and national government should resource programmes including community policing and local infrastructure to ensure there are safe public spaces for women and children in towns and rural communities including villages


• Partnerships with feminist/women’s rights organisations with bus companies, taxi operators and shipping companies to ensure public transport including transit points (bus station, bus stands) are operated and managed ensuring safety of women and children


• Dedicated training for security personnel – police and private security firms who are assigned to public places such as sports stadiums, cinemas