Women's Role in Public Space and the kNOw Fear Movement

Women's use of public space and women's fear have a correlated connection. No matter where you go, you are likely to see the physical layout and the construction of urban landscapes designed by men. It's realized that these public spaces are ultimately to be used by men and they have access over those spaces. We have to start accessing how organizational structures are contributing to the overall play in gender meanings and identities. Women's behavior, identity, and mobility around the city all take effect on their lives, (Whitson, pg. 78, 2017) ultimately leading to fear in using those public spaces. As developing countries and other areas modernize, more urban centers are increasing and that calls for us to take action and give a voice to those who are marginalized because of their class, gender, and ethnic background. If we do this, it will encourage women to take use of public space and not be afraid during certain scenarios.

Looking at public space in India specifically, the kNOw Fear movement was established to solve this problem of restricted access and fear with women. Conducting research on public space, they interviewed men and women in separate cities and villages throughout India. What they found is that men's movement was unrestricted while women's movement was kept to a minimum. Women only felt safe going to shops and markets by themselves in contrast to recreational areas such as movie theaters, restaurants and parks due to the feeling of encountering harassment or sexual violence. The kNOw Fear movement states that "Young men are a part of the kNOw Fear movement to redefine male roles by rethinking the notion of masculinity." They've began to counteract women's fear by monitoring areas of public space, advocating for political change, and raising other types of awareness. As a man, I think this is really cool, considering we often don't think about how public space benefits us.

As time progresses and more cities develop, we hope to see a change in the way cities are planned. In the future, spaces should be accounted for everyone using them and give equal mobility for everyone no matter their background or gender. With active participation and effort in taking back public space, we can change the landscape of women's fear.

References

Whitson , R. (2017). Gendering the Right to the City, 78–86. Retrieved from https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c1270dbb5a74/6396270?response-content-disposition=inline; filename*=UTF-8''feminist%20spaces%20ch%204B.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20191207T194201Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21599&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIBGJ7RCS23L3LEJQ/20191207/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=a1118e3bb87b9aaa25a3a54418469e77b594cf9ca186aa8e1425214c6e08aa36

IDRC Website . (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2019, from https://www.idrc.ca/en/about-idrc.