Designers push to make cities more female-friendly

Late last year, the USA Today wrote an article about Designers pushing to make cities more female-friendly. The article explores what the City of Philadelphia is doing to make a safer and comfortable environment for women, especially in districts where more than 2/3's of the households are headed by females and over 2/3's of the elderly are female.

This blog has previously made post about the lack of female designers of urban space and this article by USA Today points out the need for a better planned urban environment that is accommodating for everyone’s needs. Issues such as neighborhood violence, crumbled sidewalks, poorly lit streets, multi-story rowhouse stairs that make it tough to carry strollers or walk with a cane not only may disproportionably affect some women but also children and the elderly as well. The article argues that all of these factors create an urban environment that is not contusive to walking which is creating several health concerns for some women in these environments.

Excerpt from the article:

Consider these statistics:

• There are 118.5 million women in the nation's central cities and their suburbs, more than half the urban population.
• About 17 million women in those areas are age 65 and older — almost 60% of the total number of seniors in cities.
• Women 65 and older are three times as likely as their male counterparts to live alone.
• More than 14 million women live alone in cities.
• More than 23 million women are heads of households.
• More than 60% of those who care for an older person are women.

What is your opinion?