Eva Kail | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Education | Technical University of Vienna |
| Occupation | Urban planner |
| Known for | Gender mainstreaming in design |
Eva Kail is a Vienna-based urban planner who has popularized gender mainstreaming in city design and contributed to more than 60 projects related to gender equality in housing, transportation, planning, and design of public spaces. [1]
Kail served as the head of Vienna's first women's office, the Frauenburo, which was established after a 1991 photography exhibit organized by Kail called Who Owns the Public Space. [1] The exhibition featured works about the lived experiences of eight women of varying ages and abilities over the course of a single day. [2] It led to broader conversations about how many European cities, including Vienna, had been designed primarily with male commuters in mind and could subsequently fail to meet women's needs; in 1992, Kail became head of the Frauenburo. [2]
One of Kail's first projects involved inviting women to submit bids for a 357-unit complex, the Women-Work-City, or Frauen-Werk-Stadt; the women-designed project was completed in 1997 and included numerous design features intended to address women's needs, such as storage for strollers, wide stairwells, and a building height low enough to ensure residents could see the street. [2] Additionally, the complex was located near public transit and had a kindergarten on-site, meaning children could attend classes without needing parental accompaniment for long distances; medical and commercial spaces also exist within the complex. [3]
The Frauen-Werk-Stadt functioned as a proof of concept for the applications of gender mainstreaming in urban planning, and from 2002 to 2006 Kail was able to work on a pilot in the neighborhood of Mariahilf, with 28,000 residents. [2] [4] This work included improving street lighting, prioritizing pedestrians, installing new seating, widening pavement, and removing barriers to ease passage of strollers, wheelchair users, and the elderly. [2] [4] Gender mainstreaming also influenced park redesigns, after Vienna's parks department found that girls' usage of parks dropped off after the age of nine; this led planners to make improvements such as dedicated areas for volleyball and badminton, increased lighting, and seating areas. [2]
Speaking to the CBC about the political aspect of gender mainstreaming and urban design, Kail said, "If you are using public space, you are also becoming a public person. In Europe, starting with Greek democracy, all the revolutions started in public places. Political history is always connected with specific spots in city. To be able to be in the city, in the way you want to be, shows in a really clear way what your chances in society are.” [5]
Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban design considers 'bigger picture' issues of economic, social and environmental value and social design. The scope of a project can range from a local street or public space to an entire city and surrounding areas. Urban designers connect the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning to better organize physical space and community environments.
Liberal feminism, also called mainstream feminism, is a main branch of feminism defined by its focus on achieving gender equality through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy and informed by a human rights perspective. It is often considered culturally progressive and economically center-right to center-left. As the oldest of the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought, liberal feminism has its roots in 19th century first-wave feminism seeking recognition of women as equal citizens, focusing particularly on women's suffrage and access to education, the effort associated with 19th century liberalism and progressivism. Liberal feminism "works within the structure of mainstream society to integrate women into that structure." Liberal feminism places great emphasis on the public world, especially laws, political institutions, education and working life, and considers the denial of equal legal and political rights as the main obstacle to equality. As such liberal feminists have worked to bring women into the political mainstream. Liberal feminism is inclusive and socially progressive, while broadly supporting existing institutions of power in liberal democratic societies, and is associated with centrism and reformism. Liberal feminism tends to be adopted by white middle-class women who do not disagree with the current social structure; Zhang and Rios found that liberal feminism with its focus on equality is viewed as the dominant and "default" form of feminism. Liberal feminism actively supports men's involvement in feminism and both women and men have always been active participants in the movement; progressive men had an important role alongside women in the struggle for equal political rights since the movement was launched in the 19th century.
An urban beach is an artificially-created environment in an urban setting which simulates a public beachfront, through the use of sand, beach umbrellas, and seating elements. Urban beaches are designed to surprise and delight city residents, workers, and visitors by inserting a beach atmosphere into an urban area that would otherwise be a typical cityscape.
Flâneur is a French term popularized in the nineteenth-century for a type of urban male "stroller", "lounger", "saunterer", or "loafer". The word has some nuanced additional meanings. Traditionally depicted as male, a flâneur is an ambivalent figure of urban affluence and modernity, representing the ability to wander detached from society with no other purpose than to be an acute observer of industrialized, contemporary life. Flânerie is the act of strolling, with all of its accompanying associations. A near-synonym of the noun is boulevardier.
Gender mainstreaming is the public policy concept of assessing the implications for people of different genders of a planned policy action, including legislation and programmes.
Al-Azhar Park is a public park located in qism al-Darb al-Ahmar, in Historic Cairo, Egypt.
A female urinal is a urinal designed for the female anatomy to allow for ease of use by women and girls. Different models enable urination in standing, semi-squatting, or squatting postures, but usually without direct bodily contact with the toilet. Sitting models also exist, and are designed for body contact with the urinal.
Camillo Sitte was an Austrian architect, painter and urban theorist whose work influenced urban planning and land use regulation. Today, Sitte is best remembered for his 1889 book, City Planning According to Artistic Principles, in which he examined and documented the traditional, incremental approach to urbanism in Europe, with a close focus on public spaces in Italy and the Germanic countries.
The legal position of women in Austria improved since the middle of the 1970s. With regard to women's rights, the priority in Austria is based on the equal treatment of both genders, rather than having equal rights only. Thus, Austrian women benefit from their government's attempt to compensate for gender-specific inequality of burdens. However, the concept of traditional roles, influenced by Roman Catholicism in Austria, is still prevalent within Austrian society.
The Lowline, formerly known as the Delancey Underground, is a stalled construction project that would have become the world's first underground park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located under the eastbound roadway of Delancey Street on the Lower East Side, in the former Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal adjacent to the Essex Street station and the Essex Crossing complex. Construction of the Lowline began in 2019, but was put on hold in 2020 due to lack of funds.
Free the Nipple is a 2014 American comedy-drama independent film directed by Lina Esco and written by Hunter Richards. Esco created the film to draw public attention to the issue of gender equality and encourage discussion over what she perceived as America's glorification of violence and repression of sexuality. When in post-production during February 2014, the film was picked up for distribution by Paris-based WTFilms.
Quaianalagen or Seeuferanlagen on Lake Zürich is a series of lakefronts in Zürich. Inaugurated in 1887, the quaysides are considered an important milestone in the development of Zürich. The construction of the lake fronts transformed the medieval small town on the rivers Limmat and Sihl to a modern city on the Lake Zürich shore. The project was managed by engineer Arnold Bürkli.
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning in specific contexts, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks, and their accessibility. Traditionally, urban planning followed a top-down approach in master planning the physical layout of human settlements. The primary concern was the public welfare, which included considerations of efficiency, sanitation, protection and use of the environment, as well as effects of the master plans on the social and economic activities. Over time, urban planning has adopted a focus on the social and environmental bottom lines that focus on planning as a tool to improve the health and well-being of people, maintaining sustainability standards. Similarly, in the early 21st century, Jane Jacobs's writings on legal and political perspectives to emphasize the interests of residents, businesses and communities effectively influenced urban planners to take into broader consideration of resident experiences and needs while planning.
Feministische Organisation von Planerinnen und Architektinnen is an organisation working to address gender issues in the built environment generally and among professionals active in this field.
Gender democracy is a normative idea related to gender mainstreaming. Its aim is to achieve democratic conditions between men and women within society as a whole, as well as within companies, bureaucracies, and other organizations. Among other things, this is realized by means of gender trainings that raise awareness of existing inequalities and develop methods to democratize relations between genders. The term gender democracy was first coined and developed by German sociologist Halina Bedkowski.
Elke Krasny is a cultural and architectural theorist, urban researcher, curator, and author. Her work specializes in architecture, contemporary art, urbanism, feminist museology, histories and theories of curating, critical historiographies of feminism, politics of remembrance, and their intersections. Krasny received her Ph.D. from the University of Reading. She is Professor of Art and Education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She worked as a visiting professor at the University of Bremen and the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg. In 2012 she was visiting scholar at the Canadian Centre for Architecture CCA, Montréal. In 2014, she was City of Vienna Visiting Professor at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space (SKuOR) at the Vienna University of Technology. Using the framework of political care ethic developed by Joan Tronto, Krasny works on developing a perspective of critical care for architectural and urban practice and theory. In 2019, together with Angelika Fitz she edited Critical Care. Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet.
Feminist urbanism is a theory and social movement concerning the impact of the built environment on women. The theory aims to understand what it means to be a woman in an urban space and what struggles and opportunities women encounter in these environments.
Erika Weinzierl was an Austrian historian, gender researcher, and historian of Nazism. A member of the Austrian People's Party and the Curatorium of the Austrian Mauthausen Committee, she was the second director of the Department of Contemporary History of the University of Vienna, succeeding Ludwig Jedlicka. Weinzierl was a recipient of the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art, the Preis der Stadt Wien für Geisteswissenschaften, the Benemerenti medal, and the Theodor Körner Prize.
Ilse Erika Korotin is an Austrian philosopher and sociologist. She researched and published on the history of ideas of Nazism. At the Institute for Science and Art in Vienna, she heads the Documentation Centre for Women's Studies. Her work focuses on feminist biographical research and history of science.
Sibylla Flügge is a German lawyer and retired professor at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences in the field of “Law of the Woman". She was a member of the Frankfurt Women's Council. Flügge is co-editor of the feminist legal magazine STREIT.
