Gender Inclusivity in Parks and Public Spaces

Gender plays an important role in how people access and enjoy the public realm, and inclusivity is a crucial consideration in our landscape designs. Last week, the EDLA team attended a CPD session with Susannah Walker, founder of the charity Make Space for Girls, which campaigns for parks and public spaces to be designed with teenage girls in mind.

The session highlighted how parks and play areas for teenagers are predominantly built with boys in mind, resulting in lower mental and physical health outcomes for teenage girls as they feel unwelcome in these spaces. By the age of 8, boys already start to outnumber girls in public spaces.

The vast majority of facilities for teenagers consist of skateparks, BMX tracks, or MUGAs (Multi-Use Games Areas):
– 92% of teenagers using MUGAs are boys.
– Only 10% of 8-18 year olds skateboard, and of that, 85% are male.
– In a study of 91 councils, there were 1,060 MUGAs, 366 skateparks, and 89 BMX tracks, compared to only 112 shelters and 53 other facilities.

These statistics are striking and emphasize the need for more inclusive public spaces.

And, what do girls want? Make Space for Girls teams went to great lengths seeking girls’ opinions because  their voices are not heard even when studies are conducted with “park users” (girls are excluded as you will not readily find them at the parks).

Girls just wanna have FUNdamental changes to parks to public spaces:

• Social seating
• Feeling secure – being at the edge of parks rather than being at the centre
• Lighting
• Restrooms
• Swings and trampolines
• Play areas differentiated from little kids areas  as they do not feel comfortable using swings when other smaller kids are around
• Circular paths
• Performance stages, gym bars, climbing walls
• Gym equipment facing each other rather then set in a row
• Feeling welcome through colours and naming of places (gives them license to claim a space)
• Elements of nature
• Many different smaller areas instead of one big space
• Multiple entrances to MUGAs
• Feeling safe walking to parks and public spaces.