There is a certain gender inequality which has been engraved into the city’s social fabric. This engraving has been done over centuries of patriarchy and has been further embedded through the rise of capitalism (with the centralisation of labour and wealth within the masculine domain). For this reason it may be deduced that cities were developed with ’men in mind,’
One of the most significant remnants of this male dominated past has been the construction of our physical city; Though we have accepted the city at face value and tried to make it as equal as best we can, the truth remains that these environments were not designed with women in mind at all.
And so while we now have laws and regulations professing our freedom and equality as women, the truth is that we now live in an age of gender brutality, within a physical environment which perpetuates the old patriarchal norms.
But no one is to blame for this inequality. I also do not believe that it could have been avoided.
The more important and productive question is how do we go about breaking old norms in a truly sustainable way, to better achieve equality for all?
The basis of this thesis has stemmed from the exploration of the above question. What does a truly equal city look like, and how may we go about creating one?
To try and answer this question, I have tackled various theories on female integration into the city, basically concluding that now is the time we stop isolating women in institutions in the city, and rather try and deconstruct and adapt existing environments to better cater to the needs of all users, instead.
To try and achieve this, the project focuses on the deconstruction and adaptation of the male dominated taxi rank, situated within the larger transport industry, in order to better accommodate the female user.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15625 |
| Date | 07 October 2014 |
| Creators | Naidoo, Mikara |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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