7 WEEK ONLINE COURSE

What if Women Designed the City?

How can cities become greener, wilder, more inclusive, liveable and poetic?

Join international urbanist May East in this transformative 7-week online course inspired by her celebrated book What if Women Designed the City?

A gender-sensitive city

This unique programme invites participants to reimagine urban spaces through a gender-sensitive lens, exploring how cities can work better for women and girls, therefore benefitting all.

This course operates at the crossroads of three megatrends informing the world we live in:

  • The repositioning of women in society

  • The rapid pace of urbanisation

  • The urgent need to decarbonize our lifestyles

Improving urban life for all

The programme builds on a series of recent documents and reports by international ‘agenda holders’ and ‘knowledge brokers’ which reaffirm that, historically, cities have been planned and built primarily by taking the male experience as the reference. As a result, cities tend to function better for men than they do for women, children, older people, people with disabilities and individuals of diverse gender identities.

Through insights gathers from in-depth walking interviews with women and examples of gender-sensitive interventions from cities worldwide, participants will explore 33 leverage points for transforming urban planning systems. These strategies are designed to create cities that work better for women and girls, while ultimately improving urban life for all.

While cities cover just 4% of the planet’s surface, they consume 80% of global energy, generate 75% of carbon emissions, and rely on more than 75% of the world’s natural resources. The challenges are immense, but so is the regenerative potential rooted in the bio-cultural-spatial uniqueness of each place.

Key course information:

  • Course type: Online

  • Price: £150 - £250

  • Duration: 7 weeks

  • Workload Approx: 5 hours per week

  • Organization: 5 modules with live sessions, group work, and assignments.

  • Facilitation: Guided by May East.

  • Certificate: Provided upon successful completion.

Adopting a regenerative design perspective, this 7-week journey shifts the focus from “what’s wrong” to “what’s strong.” Participants will uncover untold narratives of the city, weaving them into four thematic areas:

  • Sense of Place.

  • Green Space.

  • Active Travel.

  • Safety.

COURSE FACILITATOR

About
May East.

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IS THIS COURSE for ME?

THIS COURSE WILL HELP YOU:

Grow faster than others

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Gain knowledge that will guide you

Never get stuck guessing what to do next. Become smart on demand. Find your way with our courses carefully curated by our expert.

Receive free Resources

Monthly subscriber gets access to resources that will help you grow. From video and audio courses to books and articles.

Course logistics

Duration

  • 7 weeks-long course;

Live sessions

  • Weekly 90 minutes live session with May East.

Workload

  • Weekly fresh content material; recorded sessions for those unable to join live;

Forum

  • Interaction with peers to support your learning journey.

What is included in this Course?

The Context- a historic gender gap in urban planning

The programme opens with a reflection on the intersection between three megatrends informing the world we live in: women’s repositioning in society, the accelerated pace of urbanisation and the imperative of decarbonisation of our lifestyles.

It draws on recent reports and documents from international ‘agenda holders’ and ‘knowledge brokers’ that reaffirm the historical fact that cities have predominantly been planned and built by using men’s experience as a reference.

We then discuss the implications of cities tending to function better for men than for women, children, older people, all levels of ableness, and gender identities and how cities are bridging this gap in urban planning.

Participants will be invited to:

  • Examine how these megatrends influence the bio-cultural-spatial uniqueness of their place.

  • Explore the ongoing impact of Modernism and Fordism on the continuities and discontinuities of cities, towns and neighbourhoods.

  • Reflect on unique gender-sensitive policies and practices from cities such as Vienna, Lyon, Glasgow and Rio de Janeiro, which aim to bridge the historic gender gap in urban planning.

Co-evolving mutualism - new maps for new territories

This module examines the theories of change shaping feminist cities and introduces the concept of co-evolving mutualism and its application across scales.

It engages in practices like ‘mapping with your feet’ and ‘exposing mental models in the open air’ to uncover overlooked narratives from those who have been largely absent from urban planning.

The module also introduces the concept of leverage points, emphasizing how targeted interventions can create lasting systemic impacts.

Participants will be invited to:

  • Consider how to move beyond a zero-sum perspective while reflecting on how cities that work for women and girls can ultimately benefit everyone;

  • Develop and apply an investigative regenerative framework tailored to their own contexts;

  • Critically evaluate the impact of tokenistic consultations versus practices of deep listening;

  • Identify effective ways to intervene in urban systems, organising leverage points in main analytical categories;

Sense of Place: the Depths of Place and Belonging

This week focuses on sense of place that speaks about meaningful relationships between people and specific locations and its three manifestations:

  • Place identity, where individuals define themselves through deep interactions with a particular locality;

  • Place attachment, an emotional bond that fosters a sense of belonging and connection to the environment;

  • Place dependence, where attachment arises from functional reliance on a specific location. By exploring these dimensions, participants will gain insights into how to enable sense of place to evolve in communities everywhere.

Participants will be able to evaluate the importance and applicability of the following leverage points:

  • Developing spaces for gathering and belonging;

  • Designing urban extensions while evolving the whole;

  • Shifting from a mentality of maintenance to an attitude of care;

  • Co-developing sympathetic infrastructure enabling a sense of co-ownership and care;

  • Practising a culture of deep listening in the design and development of local plans;

  • Infusing beauty into cities’ form and function;Developing inter-generational housing for a maturing humanity;

Green Spaces for People and Wildlife

This week explores how to design to increase rather than limit women, girls and children’s options in green spaces such as parks, gardens, woods, nature reserves, playing fields, and community allotments.

The emphasis is on design that supports less confident groups – young girls, people with health conditions or impairments, and the elderly – to stake a claim to their green areas.

This module also explores the need to increase the proportion of land given over to a wilder, less cultivated and the acceptance of wildlife’s right to evolve and diversify within urban environments.

Participants will be able to evaluate the importance and applicability of the following leverage points:

  • Cultivating biophilia;Redistributing land use and budget allocation for equality and gendered landscapes;

  • Creating conditions for wildness;

  • Growing and foraging for health and wellbeing;

  • Designing adventurous playgrounds for children and carers;

  • Maximising use of available local resources in urban interventions.

Encouraging Active Travel as a Way of Life

This week examines the practice of active travel – traveling with purpose using one’s own energy – through modes such as walking, cycling, wheeling, and scooting as a way of life.

The discussion focuses on policies and practices worldwide that support the transition from car-centric to people-centric cities where traffic is evaporated, and people work with nature to create places that function at a speed conducive to living well. 

Participants will be able to reflect on the importance and applicability of the following leverage points:

  • Devising a library of women-tailored bike saddles;

  • Making practical cycle awareness training mandatory for drivers;

  • Designing ‘fresh air routes’ and low emissions zones from the perspective of women and infants;

  • Rethinking the bus fare system for ‘trip-chaining’, and redesigning buses for encumbered travel;

  • Delineating and flowing through cycling infrastructure.

Systems Thinking for Safety Change

This week explores the nuanced distinction between perceived safety — a subjective fear based on judgments about the possibility of harm — and the direct experience of feeling unsafe due to actual harm or threat.

The focus is on strategies to expand the use of public spaces in the evenings and the role of natural surveillance, ‘the eyes on the street’ and ‘the guardians who belong’ in enhancing safety perceptions and deterring criminal behaviour.

Participants will be able to evaluate the importance and applicability of the following leverage points:

  • Building confidence thorough easy-to-access self-defence training, and seminars on rights of women and domestic violence.

  • Working with men to redistribute power, balance representation and transform legal and planning systems.Improving natural surveillance by design.

  • Scheduling regular patrol walks by ‘wardens who belong’.

  • Expanding the use of public space in the evenings by creating favourable bio-cultural-spatial conditions.

  • Co-creating transitional safeguarding public spaces for young women.

  • Co-designing places with (not only for) teenage girls.

The Cohort Narrative

Since fostering gender equality is a fundamental trend of the 21st century and an essential aspect of good urbanism, this week is an invitation for the participants, to embrace the exciting, liberating and unprecedented prospects that come from designing cities that work for all.

Thus, together we will weave the insights of the previous weeks and focus on developing a mosaic of visions that could be leveraged by the participants themselves. If we cannot imagine the future we want to create we will never get there!