Reviewer: Nelson Jaimes Quintero
I have come here today to tell you: We have a problem.
For centuries, our infrastructure was built by men for men.
Streets, schools, hospitals and our cities,
they have been built with men in mind.
Back in the 1990s, I served as Minister in the government of Norway.
It never failed to astonish me
to see how women ran to queue up in front of the toilets
during short breaks in parliament, in concerts, in conferences, in theatres,
while the men quickly did what they had to do
and still had time for refreshments.
Even in progressive European countries such as ours,
inadequate toilets for women are a daily reminder
that the fight for gender equality is far from over.
As you see behind me,
by one estimate, the most common current bathroom design
means that women wait an average of 6 minutes to go,
while men wait just 11 seconds.
There is a term to describe this unfortunate front
in the battle for gender equality:
Potty parity.
And frankly, not much has happened since the 1990s.
Building takes time.
Changing minds takes longer.
Parliaments, theatres, conference halls, concerts
still look pretty much the same.
Now you might be thinking:
Are toilets really the final frontier in our fight for gender-equal infrastructure?
They’re not.
Far more serious issues are at stake.
In many parts of the world,
dark unlit roads and inadequate sanitation facilities
mean that women miss out on work and education.
Unsafe public transport,
where sexual harassment and violence can happen frequently,
stop girls from achieving their dreams.
Hospitals built without reliable electricity supply
and therefore unsafe maternity wards,
result in many preventable and tragic deaths.
And injustice happens where you don't expect it.
Some years ago, I worked in a big multinational company.
Senior female professionals from all around the world
gathered to discuss
how to create equal career opportunities irrespective of gender.
Numerous proposals were put forward,
but one Indian colleague hit the nail on the head.
She suggested women in India work hard, still lose out to the men
because many can't go to the underground parking
after 5 o'clock in the afternoon without a big risk of being assaulted.
The most important initiative to promote equal opportunities at senior levels,
in her view,
would be to have a security guard to accompany you to the car.
In the words of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres:
"Achieving gender equality
and empowering women and girls is the unfinished business of our time
and the greatest human rights challenge in our world."
Men have traditionally built cities in their own image
that is male and privileged.
Men made the decisions,
gender-blind decisions.
In Frederiksberg, where we are today,
the statues of men vastly outnumber those of women.
Here, for 31 statues of named men, there is only 1 statue of a named woman:
A Queen!
Queen Louise.
So you can see what it takes to be recognized when you are a woman
and you all know this is not a phenomenon exclusive to Frederiksberg.
In the UK, only 1 in 5 statues are estimated to be of women.
If you rule out the queens,
there are more monuments to men called John than there are of women.
In New York, Central Park only erected its first statue of a named woman
in 2019!
And representations do matter in defining who has power.
But we are not talking about representation and physical access only.
Around the world, women work more hours than men.
Women bear the burden of unpaid work.
Much of this is related to household chores.
And inadequate infrastructure can add to this workload.
Too many women still walk hours to fetch the water.
Time poverty means that women do not get the time to pursue jobs or education,
which improves their status.
We are now in the beginning, very beginning of the digital era
and I am afraid we make the same mistakes
as we have done with physical infrastructure.
[The Digital Era]
The internet and computer programs might not be as visible,
but they have huge impact on our daily lives.
And yet it is men who are primarily building the digital infrastructure.
I am sure with good intentions for all,
but unfortunately women are often forgotten in this process.
And let me give you an example of the issue of bias.
We know that artificial intelligence, so called AI, can be pre-loaded with bias
by the predominantly young, white and male programmers creating it.
In the United States,
where much of the technology is being pioneered and developed,
women hold a quarter of the jobs in computing.
One study showed
how an AI algorithm learnt to associate women with pictures of the kitchen,
because it had seen sets of photos
where the people in the kitchen tended to be women.
To remove bias, it desperately needs female input.
Not so long ago when we typed words like "CEO" or "firefighter" into our phones,
predictive algorithms were suggesting to use emojis of men.
And then there is the gender gap in data, which has severe consequences for women.
What do we know about car crashes?
Men are more likely to be involved.
But when a woman is involved in a frontal car crash,
the most common type of crashes,
she is 73 percent more likely to be seriously injured than a man,
also more likely to die.
You may ask why?
Well, let me tell you.
Because car safety tests are designed for the default male.
Women tend to sit further forward than men when driving,
which is not the "standard" seating position.
So it makes women "out of position drivers".
Why do women sit further forward?
No surprise.
Because we, on average, are shorter.
This ultimately puts us women at greater risk of internal injury
in frontal collisions.
For rear-end collisions,
research shows that manufacturers use male crash test dummies
to develop car safety features.
As a result today’s car seats are too firm to protect women against whiplash injuries
caused by collisions from the rear-end.
Why?
Because women are generally lighter than men
and catapulted forward more quickly.
Medical research has also tended to exclude women.
Women were considered more expensive test subjects.
And we were not to be trusted
because of what was seen as our "fluctuating hormone levels".
I could go on, but I am sure you get the idea.
The point is that lack of data enhances the risk of poor decisions.
They may not be inclusive or appropriate
and they may be gender blind.
They tend to be done also with a male user in mind.
It shuts half of the world’s population out of the life they deserve.
It is a grave injustice that our societies, somehow, have got used to.
And this needs to change.
Of course, infrastructure can discriminate against men too.
When transport systems, buildings and roads are built without consideration
for those who use wheelchairs or prams, they discriminate regardless of gender.
And when our infrastructure is not built to adapt to a changing climate,
everyone loses.
After all, a hurricane can destroy anyone’s home if it is not properly built.
My point is:
Design without the needs of the users in mind
may lead to inequality and injustice.
It will deprive people
and giraffes!
of their right to a functioning home and community.
We need to call out this injustice, and change.
We must put gender equality at the center of our work:
in education,
in work life
and in decision making.
We need the active participation of women in all aspects of decision making.
The laws that affect us all are not being made by us all.
According to the Global Gender Gap Report this year,
only 1 in 4 parliamentarians around the world are women.
1 in 5 ministers are women.
And this has to be addressed.
But while we're a while away from a world with equal opportunities,
we know that change is possible.
We know that cities can be kinder to woman and more inclusive to everyone.
Around us, there are glimpses of what could happen
if women imagine and build our cities.
Let’s look to Vienna,
a city that for more than 30 years has been pioneering gender considerations
in all aspects of their urban planning.
How did they do this gender mainstreaming?
By recruiting more female architects and planners,
and considering the needs of the entire community in their planning.
The result is still far from perfect, but it's progress.
They built wider pavements
because they found that men use cars and bikes more frequently,
while women are more often pedestrians and public transport users.
More areas were made entirely barrier free
so that prams, wheelchair users and elderly people could move more freely.
The planners found also the number of girls using public parks was dropping
when they got to the age of only 9.
To encourage more girls to use the parks,
they changed the design for sports in two parks in Margareten district.
The planners also improved lighting and footpaths
to add to the sense of security.
In the neighbourhood of Aspern Seestadt,
the streets and public places are named almost exclusively after women.
Similarly, in Barcelona,
the female mayor has since 2015 introduced feminization of politics.
More public lighting to increase safety.
Better and more effective responses to sexual harassment and violence.
New projects take the perspective of caretakers into consideration.
Her radical ideas are beginning to shape parts of the city
into truly inclusive spaces for all.
For women, for children,
for disabled and the elderly.
From Barcelona and Delhi to Nairobi and Cairo,
examples exist of people trying to make urban spaces kinder to everyone,
and not just to able-bodied men.
These changes are extremely few and still far between,
but the first step is to acknowledge that we have a problem.
So my message for you to take home is this:
Consider how the infrastructure was designed and who it was designed for.
Consider how we interact with each other and the infrastructure that surrounds us.
And what do we need to change to prevent the injustice from being repeated?
Remember that infrastructure lasts for decades as does the wrongdoings.
And to the gentlemen in the room,
the next time you have to wait in line for the toilet,
remember all the women who have waited before you.
Thank you very much!
(Applause)