Women-friendly cities are designed to help women guarantee their convenience and safety and reinforce their capabilities while making use of spaces. According to the social survey results of National Statistical Office, six out of ten women in their t...
Women-friendly cities are designed to help women guarantee their convenience and safety and reinforce their capabilities while making use of spaces. According to the social survey results of National Statistical Office, six out of ten women in their twenties or thirties were anxious about walking by themselves at night. As the number of accidental crimes and accidents targeting women rises, the need and importance of women-friendly cities has been further highlighted.
Women-friendly cities need to build their hardware actively in physical urban spaces as well as simple software policies intended to make only project achievements. This study set out to investigate the actual application and effects of women-specialized districts by analyzing citizens' perceptions. Citizens feel inconvenience or experience a discrimination themselves when using physical urban spaces. As users of such urban spaces, they need to figure out problems with the use of urban spaces and take active part in their resolutions.
The subject area was "Women's Happiness Community" in 2-2 District of the Sejong Multi-Functional Administrative City, which was built by the district according to the implementation guidelines of a specialized district by the life zone.
After analyzing the concept of women-friendly cities, the study reviewed previous studies and proposed its differentiating elements from other researches. Women-friendly elements were categorized and arranged to analyze the actual application and effects of women-specialized districts in the subject area, who implementation guidelines for a district unit plan were analyzed and compared with those of non-specialized districts.
By analyzing its actual application and effects based on a field survey and questionnaire survey, the investigator identified problems with the application of the women-specialized district and proposed their solutions by the policy and institution.
The analysis results were as follows: first, most users were not able to recognize the fact that a women-specialized district was created, but higher recognition of elements of implementation guidelines led to higher space access and utilization.
Secondly, the respondents said that most facilities were built wonderfully in relation to the elements of implementation guidelines of a women-specialized district, but they pointed out the lack of access and utilization in the facilities related to childcare and family life. That is, there is a need to expand childcare and family amenities to promote the convenience of space users accompanied by their children and highlight their importance.
Finally, the study examined the importance of women-friendly elements and implementation guideline elements and found that citizens placed the greatest importance on "health and safety" and "life convenience," which indicates that citizens need a safe city and life amenities in a women-friendly city. Most women-friendly cities currently under development focus on supportive programs for work-family compatibility and economic aid policies for women whose career has been interrupted. The findings suggest that physical hardware building is more important in a women-friendly city than software policies such as supportive programs.
The present study investigated the actual application and effects of women-specialized districts, and its findings may serve as basic data in the construction, management and improvement of women-friendly cities in the future.
Furthermore, the study conducted a survey on the perceptions of users in a women-specialized district, identified problems with current women-friendly cities based on the active reflection of citizens' opinions, and proposed solutions based on the elements reflecting the need and importance of citizens' perceptions, thus holding its significance.