Together with the UNESCO Chair, DCN presented the result of months of work alongside women living in the northern districts of Madrid.
The report issued is the outcome of the Gender Equality Workshops and Women’s Safety Audits and represents a further step in operationalizing the gender perspective in Madrid Nuevo Norte.
Teresa Valle, a participant in the Exploratory Workshops on Gender and resident in Chamartín: “I found the workshop very interesting because nobody had asked me what obstacles I find in my neighbourhood in my everyday life”.
Distrito Castellana Norte (DCN) has issued the “Informe de las marchas exploratorias de seguridad en los barrios colindantes a Madrid Nuevo Norte” (Report on the Safety Audits in Neighbouring Districts of Madrid Nuevo Norte). This report is the result of the joint work of DCN and the UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality Policies in Science, Technology and Innovation at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM).
Urban Planning with a Gender Approach
DCN and the UNESCO Chair work together to incorporate the gender perspective into the Madrid Nuevo Norte (MNN) project. Together, they attended the 7th edition of the Engendering Conferences, organized by UN-Habitat under the umbrella of Urban October, which address the integration of gender in major urban regeneration processes; as well as the seminar “Urban Planning, Gender and Participation”, organized with the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP).
Madrid Nuevo Norte is the first major urban development project in Spain to have, since its inception, a gender impact assessment. This report reviews and takes into account gender-based differences when designing the city. Thus, the gender perspective has been present cross-sectionally and at all levels in the design of MNN.
Along this line, DCN’s Department of Social Engagement designed, together with the UNESCO Chair, a specific project for women in the northern districts of Madrid, focused on participation. Because having the vision of all groups is what will help create liveable cities. As far as women are concerned, the stakeholders involved in urban planning must be able to reach them, so that their voice is sufficiently represented and, finally, so that they are also part of the process of creating their city.
With this objective in mind, the “Exploratory Workshops on Gender” were born. As their name implies, this project revolved around a series of preparatory workshops with women from districts adjacent to MNN as well as Safety Audits around those districts. The conclusions of these works are included in a report, also written by the UNESCO Chair, where the areas perceived by women as safe or unsafe have been mapped. Almost 80 people attended the official presentation of the report, at La Casa del Lector de Matadero Madrid.