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IWD 2026: Planning Gives - Women and Girls Gain

By Dr Dory Reeves FRTPI



The theme of global International Women’s Day (IWD) 2026 is Give to Gain. In the spirit of the theme, I want to encourage planners to be aware of how they can deliver Feminist City outcomes; places designed through the lens of women and girls that work for everyone. I also want to signal the need to road test any suggested revisions to the Public Sector Equality Duty and EQIAs so that local development plans and strategic plans will be included and subject to the process.

 

IWD 2025 saw COSLA host a conference in Edinburgh to celebrate the Feminist City, with speakers from Glasgow and Edinburgh. The main aim was to highlight achievements to date, particularly around safety and the public realm. The tangible achievements described by Holly Bruce, Councillor for Langside included ‘procurement for the 20-minute neighbourhood, political oversight group, action fund of £1m per year for infrastructure, inclusive planning of parks, public toilets, lighting’. A subsequent piece by Holly, including a video, for the RSA online Journal published in July 2025 provides more detail.[1] 

 

Neither the COSLA event, nor the content on RSA, made any mention of the Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) process or the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED). These were introduced initially in Northern Ireland in 1998 and in the rest of the UK through the Equality Act 2010. Modelled on Environmental Impact Assessments, they were designed to help deliver the Public Sector Equality Duty.[2] It was hoped that by undertaking screening and EQIAs, policies would address inequalities and promote equality for all protected categories[3]. This should mean that policies to increase the supply of housing take account of the issues and needs of women; that policies to redesign city and town centres are gender sensitive as well as accessible. In other words, each of the issues tackled by development plans could do more to reduce inequality and promote equality.

 

At the time, I wondered whether the EQIA process, if properly administered, could have led to Feminist City outcomes, similar, to the ones achieved in Glasgow.[4]

 

One of the key limitations of the EQIA process is that it is not a requirement in law in the UK. Suggested revisions to the Scottish Specific Duties of the Public Sector Equality Duty have been put forward by the advocacy group ENGENDER.[5] The suggested revisions would mean that authorities listed in the legislation would be under a duty to mainstream the equality duty and not simply report progress on mainstreaming equality; they would have to make the equality duty integral to the exercise for all of its functions (including planning) and prepare a strategic plan setting out how these outcomes and the duties will be met. New duties should include national equality outcomes; a duty to gather, collect and use intersectional data, and a provision for equality competence building. If Feminist City outcomes and gender sensitive places and spaces are to be created, we need to ensure that planning is included in a meaningful way.

 

Despite these much-needed changes to the PSED, it will still require the following to happen to achieve Feminist City outcomes:


(1) Politicians will need to follow Holly Bruce’s (Glasgow City Council) and Alys Mumford’s (Edinburgh City Council) example and bring ideas about the benefits of the Feminist City to the fore. There is a continued need to support groups of women advocating for changes to the way our spaces and places are designed.


(2) Professional bodies like the RTPI and RIBA need to work harder to ensure that professionals are aware of and know how to implement the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) through the EQIA process. Promoting better practice through CPD programmes and rewarding better practice through recognition.


(3) Agencies like the London Legacy Development Corporation need to continue their excellent work in promoting the issues. Their publication, Creating places that work Women and Girls Handbook for Local Authorities, Developers and Designers, published July in 2024, is a useful reference point.[6] As part of the handbook, Section D1 sets out the process that should deliver gender sensitive design and is structured to align with the RIBA Plan of Work and its inclusive design and engagement principles.



They need to be allowed to give their opinions and be part of co-producing the solutions.

In a recent talk Eva Kail [7], one of the founders of the gender planning movement in Vienna in the 1980s, pointed out that it was 19th century male engineers who transformed the structure of our cities 21st century. A similar urban restructuring is needed, but with involvement of female politicians, experts, and a high involvement of women as citizens.

 

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[2] The Public Sector Equality Duty contained in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 requires public authorities to have due regard to a number of equality considerations when exercising their functions. EIAs should be carried out prior to implementing a policy, with a view to identifying its potential impact on equality. They are not required by law but are a way of facilitating and evidencing compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.

·         [3] Age discrimination. What age discrimination is. ...

·         Disability discrimination. ...

·         Gender reassignment discrimination. ...

·         Marriage and civil partnership discrimination. ...

·         Pregnancy and maternity discrimination. ...

·         Race discrimination. ...

·         Religion or belief discrimination. ...

·         Sex discrimination

[7] Eva Kail 2026 Austrian Embassy Gender Planning in an Urban Context, organised by the Austrian Embassy, Zoom.

 
 
 

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