“Separate but Equal?” Understanding Gender Differences in Urban Park Usage and Its Implications for Gender-Inclusive Design

Abstract

This article examines the role that physical design plays in shaping women’s everyday experiences in public space by studying gender differences in the use of a 1.3-acre urban park in a specific cultural enclave. Through direct observation, behavior mapping, and quantitative analysis, the project reveals an obvious gender separation of space usage in Portsmouth Square in the Chinatown district of San Francisco, California. In-depth interviews exposed a range of reasons for this separation and revealed how some Chinese immigrants construct and negotiate their social dynamics and territoriality on the urban square. The findings reaffirm that men and women often have different preferences in open spaces as well as different concepts of optimum public space experiences. Results also indicate that observed segregation by gender is not all voluntary. In this case, besides the known factors such as cultural and social norms, physical space design is important in shaping women’s use of public space, perpetuating and even intensifying gender separation and inequity. This study addresses and highlights some spatial elements that can be easily overlooked by landscape architects and environmental planners. It argues that to create a gender-inclusive—or, at a minimum, genderaware— public space, designers must consider not only the differences of ability, movement, and designated spots but also barriers, interruptions, and spaces avoided or inaccessible by specific populations.