Australian First Lady calls for cities to be more 'female friendly'

Well this is interesting. An article published on essentialbaby.com.au has raised the question that city planners should be armed with a pram and a toddler when designing cities.

“That means fixing footpaths so that women can push prams, lengthening the time traffic signals give pedestrians so women can cross safely, carefully considering the placement of street lights and bus stops, and building communities that encourage walking, cycling and public transport,” says writer of the piece Catherine Carter, ACT executive director of the Property Council of Australia.

Apparently most cities are designed not only by men, but with men in mind.

“Understanding what it's like to feel vulnerable after dark or experiencing the battle to push a pram along a street while coaxing an unwieldy toddler can change the way we think about the design of our streets,” writes Catherine.

According to Catherine there has been some changes made. In Canada, planners ask women to walk around neighbourhoods and pinpoint where they feel unsafe, while in the UK some night bus routes have been altered to drop women closer to their destinations.

Lucy Turnbull, the wife of the Australian Prime Minister has taken this issue to her heart. As the chair of the thinktank Committee for Sydney she has called on the city’s planners to make designing female-friendly cities a core aspect of urban renewal.

“Sometimes you see extremely glamorous designer pavements that are completely impassable,” she recently said to Fairfax Media. “If a city is female friendly, it is friendly for everybody. It’s not an exclusionary idea of female friendly, but to ensure that women and young children are able to fully participate in the life of the city and the economy of the city.”

What do you think mums?