Feminism, Urbanism, and Transit Advocacy
Feminism, Urbanism, and Transit Advocacy
I wrote another post for my publication/fancy blog, Rainy Season Times, on the topic of urban activism and public transit, and how it intertwines with feminism.
https://rainyseason.substack.com/p/feminism-urbanism-and-transit-advocacy
I saw that you noted "Invisible Women" in there, and thank you! Her chapter on transit design was fascinating to me, because it had never occurred to me that transit routes could be biased against women (however unintentionally).
Public transit seems like it was designed for men who leave the house for work, and not really for anyone else.
What a great post! I had no clue the route planning itself was based around male needs only. I SO gotta read Invisible Women sometime. Not gonna lie, I thought you would touch a little on the aspect of the structural design of buses/cars of trains and metros etc but the post is still about a really important aspect of urban planning that I wasn't aware of before, so I'm glad I read it!
It's just that I'm a bit concerned about how poles and handles meant for people to hold onto in buses and metros tend to be so high-up that they're either incredibly uncomfortable for women to grasp, or straight up unreachable. The average woman is shorter than the average man, our centers of gravity are lower, we have less muscle density than males... The physical differences between sexes are big enough that simply finding a way not to fall during a turn when inside transportation becomes a stressful puzzle. I would go so far as saying it's an accessibility issue, one that impacts lots of people, including those who aren't disabled. Even a short man will have an easier time grabbing onto a pole overhead than a woman of the same height. There's a myriad of other accessibility issues I find in public transportation all the time, but this is a particular example that I think affects women disproportionately. (For the record, I'm not disabled. I just find accessibility to be lacking in way too many places and it bothers me a great deal.)
