Last week, in the run-up to International Women’s Day, Tarah Gear (Director of Brand and Place Futures) joined Kayley Buxton from Revo and Marina Milosev from Beyond the Red Line to highlight the critical agenda of women’s safety in the built environment.
Some of Tarah’s key points from the discussion are detailed below:
“While violence against women—or any form of gendered violence—is a societal issue that must be addressed at its root causes through education, policy, and community engagement, it’s important to recognise that the built environment also has a role to play. Thoughtful design and ‘gendered thinking’ can help women feel more self-confident while making potential perpetrators of crime or violence feel more self-conscious. We increasingly talk about building communities, and ultimately, community and connection foster a sense of safety, whereas segregation and isolation often lead to feelings of threat or danger.
“One of the challenges in this discussion is that the response is often, ‘Safety should be for everyone.’ I agree—everyone has the right to feel safe in every environment. However, if we fail to examine the specific issues surrounding women’s safety—especially how safe or unsafe women feel—and instead align their experiences with a universal or male-interpreted perspective, we miss critical nuance and detail. This perpetuates decision-making that defaults to a male perspective. We must listen, conduct meaningful community engagement, and hold space for women’s voices to truly understand what different communities are experiencing and why.
“Women feel most unsafe when traveling from one place to another or using public transport. When women feel unsafe, it changes their behaviour—they might choose not to visit certain areas, spend less time there, or alter their travel time and mode of transport. All of these decisions negatively impact efforts to revitalise town centres and high streets, and they have a commercial impact as well.
“At Milligan, much of our focus is on town centre regeneration. We consider a place as a whole—the sense of arrival, the curated mix of offerings throughout different parts of the day. It’s equally important to assess these elements from a woman’s perspective. Does a place feel safe? Can it be navigated easily? Women are more likely to walk and ‘trip-chain’—combining errands or childcare duties with their commute. How are we addressing these needs in urban design? Doing this well requires collaboration between developers, local authorities, landlords, brands, and operators.
“We should also consider how women are included in various environments. During my time in sport, many large stadiums began focusing on ensuring women felt welcome—from providing sufficient toilets to having female security teams and offering f&b options that catered to their tastes. When women feel included, they feel considered—and that, in turn, impacts their sense of safety.
“Over the next decade, our town centres will undergo significant change—we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create more inclusive spaces. With more town centre living on the horizon, we must ensure that the ‘ground floor’ includes active frontages, well-lit amenities, and clear, open wayfinding to retain vibrancy and security.
“If I could introduce one major shift, it would be a change in mindset. Instead of simply accommodating women’s needs, bodies, and safety concerns, let’s view this as a positive design challenge: What would our developments and places look like if we prioritized women and girls? How would they change? What would the commercial impact be? How can we create spaces that feel more inclusive and safe for everyone?”
