The role of urban furniture in promoting gender equality and static social activities in public spaces

Abstract

Urban furniture plays a crucial role in shaping public spaces, influencing how people interact and engage in social activities. Its design may impact gender equality by either facilitating or hindering equal access to public amenities for both men and women. The entrenched constraints on equal opportunities for women in establishing social activities, particularly in ideologically traditional developing countries like Iran, create observable disparities in the usage of public amenities. This research aimed to develop a comprehensive framework fostering equal opportunities for both men and women in static social activities around street furniture. To achieve this, the research employed a mixed-methods approach. The study combined empirical field observations, space syntax analysis, and interviews with users of public spaces. The space syntax analysis was used to evaluate spatial integration and connectivity, while interviews provided qualitative insights into how men and women interact with urban furniture. Observational data helped identify patterns in the use of street furniture by different genders. The results indicated that street furniture positively influences the social logic of space by enhancing spatial integration and connectivity, thus improving overall accessibility to public spaces for social activities. However, a significant gender imbalance was observed, with men predominantly using street furniture more frequently than women. This disparity highlights conflicting perspectives on gender equality in public space usage. The findings suggest that achieving a more equitable gender distribution in public spaces requires designing street furniture that reduces visual integration and connection while increasing the visual clustering coefficient and entropy, thereby creating more inclusive environments.