This June Women Deliver was in town. One of their satellite events I went to was Downtown Vancouver through a Gender Lens with Vancouver Urbanarium Society’s Alicia Medina Laddaga and Scott Hein. The walking tour’s description included this – Selected locations are intended to provoke conversations about context, symbolism, accessibility, ethno-centric narrative, perceived safety and embedded gender bias. Further, it is hoped the shared experience will motivate deeper conversation about shared values, included historical and cultural considerations for an evolving, and compassionate, city.

Growing up in this city, as a young girl and a young woman, I did not see Vancouver through female eyes. Even though I went to an all-girls’ school. So I was curious.

We knew what areas to stay out of, especially at night. Always among friends, clubbing, after-parties, and just being out, I never felt unsafe out late. I also don’t want to say that a city beyond a certain population size is automatically unsafe. Big cities like Tokyo and Singapore, I feel, are extremely safe. Sanitized, even. Well, at least Singapore. Canada, in general, has a reputation for being pretty safe, perhaps only in contrast with the gun violence south of us. As we know, though, Canadian indigenous women are more and very vulnerable to violence. So it’s complex. It’s complex because we have asymmetrical privilege. I have asymmetrical privilege.

Asymmetrical Privilege

Asymmetrical privilege means in some sectors of society and the system, I can move with ease, understanding, and support. Invisibility, we must remember, does not equate acceptance. Being “ignored”, though, can have its benefits.

In other areas, not so much and I often wonder if it’s because I am female or Asian that I fall under certain gazes. Of course, it’s all very subjective as well, and this is not to negate or diminish anyone’s experiences, including my own. Never let anyone tell you, “it’s all in your head.”

As a visible minority, no matter what generation, we are not quite as “Canadian” as someone who is Caucasian or can pass as one.

At another Women Deliver satellite event, Talking about Reconciliation and Decolonization, Sierra Tasi Baker of Sky Consulting spoke about being 869th generation in these lands. These are the people with ancestors in these lands, long before they were colonized. Yet they are still highly discriminated against, even systematically.

On the other hand, because of my skin tone, I’m automatically a member of POC, though often this term means those of African-American and Latino-American descent, especially in the United States. Much of the time I feel like I’m excluded from the term POC and it’s somewhat of a limbo being not white enough and not dark enough, at least politically. I can see why some people of mixed heritage struggle with identity and belonging.

However, I’m not comfortable creating bonds and alliances based just on my skin tone. I’m not comfortable being anti-people. Division – segregation – along any lines breeds and perpetuates stereotypes and us vs them mentality.

At any rate, the world is mostly living from not-self and from deep conditioning so we are not seeing clearly. While people have “good” intentions, it does not mean their choices have value if they themselves are seeing through a distorted lens. It’s not for me to judge. I’m just observing and I can see the power play through the politics and agendas of different groups.

Are we ready to change?

Are people ready to change? Do they want to? It’s hard for people to really change. It’s so tied up with their identity, or at least that’s what people think. The concepts upon which their identity has been built on are a result of their conditioning. We are all so easily distracted, and outraged.

People get angry and then we acclimate to the situation, until another crisis or disaster enrages us, sickens us, and calls us to action. It’s reactionary.

Real change comes from people themselves. It comes from people living as themselves.

Getting to Know My City

Still, urban design through the gender lens held an interest for me. Because after over 15 years living overseas, I’m new to my city and my city has already changed so much.

This, the guides told us, is still an emerging field. They shared that their approach is designing for everyone, regardless of gender. The question is, are we at the point where the experiences of all genders are similar and equivalent enough for that approach to be sensitive enough?

It’s not that I disagree about being all-inclusive. The question is how to take into account gendered experiences, without segregating people and defaulting to gender stereotypes.

A Little Digging..

Looking further into this, it seems that Montreal started exploratory walks in the 1990s and if you google this topic, you’ll find a lot of articles about Vienna and the survey there to make the city more inclusive.

Because the guides felt they were not experts in what some call womanability, the reason I signed up for the walk vanished. Still, I stayed to hear what they had to say about this downtown east walking tour.

Probably the closest they came to talking about exploratory walks and gender-led urban design was when we stopped across from Four Sisters Co-op. Scott Hein spoke about how the residents of the co-op were consulted in the building of the pump station across the street.

Opened in 1987, Four Sisters was named for Vancouver’s four sisters – Edinburg, Scotland, Guangzhou, China, Odessa, Ukraine, and Yokohama, Japan. With 153 suites, this co-op houses mixed-income families from diverse cultures. Now kids who grew up here are activists, with pride for their place and community. What they have to say would have been interesting. What are their concerns as mothers, sisters, and daughters?

Although I didn’t learn much about Vancouver from a gender perspective, it did get me thinking. Considering the gender lens in urban planning goes beyond the question of safety. Because of our gendered roles, women and men use and access public spaces and transport differently. Broadly speaking, it is still predominately women who are childminders. Even with careers, women are the ones who tend to take time off to take their children to doctor’s appointments or afterschool activities. Rather than home-work route, divergences come from additional destinations, involving multiple modes of transport.

On the walk, we were asked to look out for what are potential threats and how urban design can improve the environment. To be honest, it wasn’t so easy, especially since we were walking rapidly as a large group in broad daylight. To the untrained eye, design through the gender lens is challenging and it is not an easy field. There are so many factors in play, a medley of interconnected, cascading factors – historic, cultural, trauma past, systemic gaps…

Thanks to this walk, I’ll be more mindful of these factors as I navigate through my city.