Gender Segregation in Urban Spaces and Women’s Quality of Life

Development of favorable public urban spaces plays a significant role in realization of sustainable development through considering requirements, real possibilities and people participation  in the city. Historically, urban spaces have displayed gendered nature due to their architectural style; meaning urban spaces practically  have restricted women’s free mobility leading to their spatial exclusion. Thus, not only women  have been deprived of access to public urban spaces but also they have been excluded from social activities and participation. In recent decade, in Iran programs have been implemented to create women- only spaces seeking women’s satisfaction in metropolises such as  Tehran. Spaces like wagons, buses, women- only parks and welfare complexes are allocated to female population with different  objectives  to create womanly urban spaces, remove their spatial  exclusion and enhance their safety. This paper reviews womanly urban spaces theoretically, and  presents pro and cons regarding gender segregation in urban spaces and its impact on women’s  quality of life. It seems none of the approaches has provided enough evidences to support their views. Proponents emphasize women’s safety, its impact on women’s life and opportunities for  women’s active presence in public spaces; on the  other hand, opponents consider reproduction of  traditional gender segregation, women’s spatial  exclusion of public urban spaces and women’s passive citizenship. Seemingly, positive function  of such spaces partially is acceptable, if creating  gendered urban spaces results in entitlement  of women to choose between segregated/ not segregated spaces to meet their needs in public domins. However, gendered spaces may be considered merely as a temporary solution in  transition period for normalization of women’s  social activities in masculine cities.