Women and Seeking "the Right to the City" in the Gendered Sidewalks (Case Study: District 6, Tehran City)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Earth Sciences,, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD student in Geography & Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

10.22055/qjsd.2020.16735

Abstract

"The right to the city", the notion that Lefebvre introduced, has known as birth of a global social movement which seeks to reveal the legitimacy of all residents to city, beyond the class, racial and gender differences in fair access to the city. Sidewalks (Pedestrians), regardless of the role of the passageway, are recognized as one of the most important areas of social life, so that there is an undeniable necessity to facilitate equal access to all citizens in the context of this intellectual framework. Therefore, the present study seeks to identify obstacles to the right of women to these spaces and the quality of their presence in such spaces. The research method was descriptive-analytic and survey. Based on random sampling, 320 women in the study area formed the sample size. The results indicate that fear of violence and crime plays the main role in preventing the women's right to presence in the city's walkways and turns these spaces into a gendered environment, so that participating women restricts own voluntary activities in these spaces especially the activities that needs to halting and pausing in space. 

Keywords

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Quarterly Journal of Social Development (Previously Human Development)
Volume 15, Issue 1 - Serial Number 57
Vol. 15, No. 1, Autumn 2020
February 2020
Pages 71-100

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