Gender and the Urban Environment Perception; Notions and factors

Gender differences in urban public spaces can be the source of many factors affecting the quality of urban environment. A review of this proposition requires an accurate understanding of the concept of urban perception. Interpretation of what our sensory receptors have received from the surrounding environment takes place in the brain. This act is called perception that leads to recognition. The research seeks to answer the question of how the gender differences of citizens can change sensory perception and ultimately their perception of the urban environment and what are the factors and notions of this kind of perception? The main method of research in this article is the descriptive method, along with analyzing the content of qualitative content and analyzing the data extracted by field studies method. An analysis of the content of research and theories on the factors derived from gender differences has also been part of the research method. After designing the conceptual model of the research, the findings of this study shows that Gender differences are manifested in three-dimensional perceptions, city-centered navigation, environment image ability, mapping skills, and ultimately routing and way finding. Therefore, these components can be regarded as the main notions of perceptual differences in urban environments. Of course, all of this is due to differences in the structure of the human brain, which can be altered for both women and men. Another important point before the perception of the environment is the sense of the environment that is received by our five senses and as a result, the ideas of this study add to the difference in the use of sensory, tactile, auditory, olfactory and taste (with varying degrees of importance) among men and women.