Getting More Women on Their Bikes

"To create sustainable, healthy and liveable cities, we need to increase the number of cyclists on our streets, and that means getting more women on their bikes. In San Francisco, only 29% of cyclists are women; in Barcelona, there are three male cyclists for every female cyclist; in London, 37% of cyclists are female."

Ways to increase the number of women cycling in cities is to ensure protected cycle lanes, secure cycle parking, better data concerning women's transport choices and safety considerations, representation, social events and workshops.

More: The Guardian

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photograph via Fast Company

Eine von Vier.

"Eine von Vier. Initiative gegen Altersarmut", die bekanntlich weiblich ist. Die Kreuzkirche in Graz hat ein Projekt gestartet, das gerne unterstützt werden darf:

"Ein Weihnachtsgeschenk für das Enkelkind oder abgetragene Winterstiefel ersetzen - solche alltäglichen Ausgaben stellen ältere Menschen immer häufiger vor eine grosse Herausforderung. Besonders stark sind allein-lebende Pensionistinnen betroffen: Jede vierte ist bereits von Armut bedroht. Teilzeitarbeit, schlechter bezahlte, klassische Frauenberufe und lange Kinderbetreuungszeiten ziehen niedrige Pensionen und somit Altersarmut nach sich. Das Projekt "Eine von Vier" - Initiative gegen Altersarmut setzt sich für diese Frauen ein. Die Betroffenen erfahren hier aber auch Wertschätzung dafür, dass sie es schaffen, mit Sparsamkeit und viel Lebenserfahrung auch mit wenig Geld auszukommen. Bei "Tannenduft und Engelshaar" kann konkrete Hilfe geleistet werden: Die beim Adventmarkt gesammelten Spenden werden an Betroffene weitergegeben."
Kreuzkirche Graz

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Foto: ML Moazedi

Living Longer and Becoming More Diverse: The Many Faces of Co-Housing

"'Co-housing' as a formal and distinct concept is broadly recognised as having originated in Denmark. (...) This semi-urban communal living arrangement - on the fringes of a rapidly intensifying urban context with limited housing supply - was novel in that it self-consciously responded to growing calls for gender equality, and focused explicitly on providing childcare through the pooling of (multiple) household resources." (p. 21)

"Sharing in general can be understood as consisting of two types: the first around tangible, practical resource sharing, such as pooling material items or services (tools, cars, storage space, energy production etc.) or providing support (e.g. caring for children, the elderly or people with special needs); the second is around the less tangible: sense of togetherness or closeness, desire for involvement in each other's lives." (p. 44)

"While some forms of co-living are emerging to cater to culturally distinct segments of society, there is a challenge of how we handle ageing together with others we don't necessarily choose, or who 'don't look like us.'" (p. 45)

::: Download "Ahn, J., Tusinski, O. & Treger, C. (2018). Living Closer. The many faces of co-housing. A Studio Weave publication in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects" : LINK

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image via Campfire Bugle

A Basic Instinct

"Jensen was fascinated by the difference between how men and women sit in public space, which led her to create a series of chairs that force the sitter to open her legs and manspread."
Fast Company

"I wanted to explore the body language of women because we seem to be more restricted than men," she said. "We seem to follow the rules/norms more tightly in contrary to men. We constantly think about how we are perceived instead of acting on an instinct, hence the title."
Anna Aagaard Jensen

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photo via Dezeen

Weekend. Enjoy!

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Photograph via Twitter

Wiens Straßennamen

"Straßen dienen nicht nur der Orientierung und Identifikation mit einem Grätzl, sondern fördern auch die kollektive Erinnerung."
Andreas Mailath-Pokorny

Wien erhielt 2016 in den Bezirken Favoriten und Floridsdorf 20 neue Straßen, Gassen und Plätze, 13 von ihnen wurden nach Frauen benannt. (Die Presse)

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Foto via HomeCompany

WoManchester

On this International Women's Day, the city of Manchester is renamed Womanchester. The name is part of a programme that is dedicated to celebrated Womanchester's history of powerful women (Manchester Evening News). Founder of the British Suffragette movement Emmeline Pankhurst, for instance, was born in Manchester (Visit Manchester).
Happy International Women's Day 2018 to everyone!

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image via Lovin Manchester

Girls Sleeping Rough in Brighton

Around one in eight rough sleepers in England are women. Their average lifespan is 43.

"We are going up to the graveyard, so I can go to bed. So I can make my bed in a tent with the dead people. It's a lot safer than the streets itself."

"If I could go back to jail tommorow, I would. Because everyone's friendly in there, really nice. And yeah, you get your three meals a day. You get your medication on time, same time everyday. ... It's cosy. I've got my own room, my own bed."

"She can't survive out there. (...) She's only a baby."

"I commit."

#BehindEveryGreatCity

"Sadiq Khan’s new #BehindEveryGreatCity campaign will champion the fact that it is the achievements and contributions of women, from all walks of life, which make cities like London great." City of London

Sadiq Khan's new campaign #BehindEveryGreatCity will celebrate the centenary since women securing the right to vote and London's role in the women's suffrage campaign. The slogan is a play on "Behind every great man stands a great woman", a slogan that was often used in the 1960s and 70s and "highlights that women don't stand behind great men, but instead power great cities". We still have a long way to go: Three times more women than men living in London say that their gender is a barrier to their progression at work while four times more men say that their gender is a benefit at the workplace (City of London).

"Next year we mark a century since the first women got to vote in the UK - one of our country’s most pivotal moments. Milestones like this are a time to look back and mark the huge strides that have been made towards gender equality, and to celebrate the success of women in our great city.
It is also a time to take stock of the huge inequalities women still face, almost 100 years on since women first voted and, more importantly, to take action. At City Hall, I have pledged to be a proud feminist and I am delighted to announce this campaign to say that Behind Every Great City is equality, opportunity and progress – regardless of your gender.
Over the next year, and beyond, we will highlight how women of all ages, ethnicities, faiths and backgrounds make London the great city it is. More importantly, we will redouble our efforts in the fight for gender equality. During this momentous year and beyond, we must do all we can to remove any barriers to women’s success and to unlock their full potential." Sadiq Khan

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photograph of Sadiq Khan with Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger via

The Babayagas' House

“I’m 84, but what time I have left is going to be happy and fulfilled, I’m sure of that. Old age isn’t about being shipwrecked. It isn’t an illness. It can be beautiful ,and I plan to live it that way, with my friends and colleagues here.”
Babayaga founder Thérèse Clerc

"Aging in place: It’s what 90 percent of seniors say they want for themselves, according to AARP. But even after we’ve retrofitted our homes, do we really want robot “companions” and sensor-powered systems that inform friends or family when we haven’t opened the refrigerator for two days? Isolation might not be a good trade-off for independence — apart from anything else, research shows clearly that it can kill us. What’s the option if you’re not the retirement community type or can’t afford longterm care?"

"Thérèse Clerc was in her mid-60s when she started to think about how women could grow into old age without losing autonomy. An energetic, passionate feminist living in Paris, she knew that her generation of French women had not been able to build up retirement funds to cover at-home care, because they had spent years caring for families. Older women in France, as elsewhere, are among the poorest segment of the population. And Clerc didn’t like what she saw when she visited state-run homes, where life was dull and regimented. Clerc knew that living by someone else’s rules or on their schedule was not in her future. A lifelong activist, she also was interested in demonstrating that old age can be a beautiful time of life.

So Clerc got together with some activist friends and came up with the idea to create an exclusively female, self-governing, environmentally friendly cohousing collective for women who want to live independently into old age — yet within a supportive and fully engaged community. They would call it the Babayagas’ House after a supernatural being in Slavic folkore — a witch who offers guidance to younger women."

"The Babayaga model is an urban one. In Paris, the house is close to shops and the metro. Being centrally located is important for the women’s ease in coming and going, and for encouraging the greater community to come in and participate in what the Babayagas have to offer — and their offerings are significant.

A key feature of the Babayaga model is its 860 square ft. ground floor space that’s dedicated as an open university that anyone from the surrounding community can attend. In this intergenerational center, the Babayagas run courses, offer discussion groups, do creative writing and give concerts. One of the tenets of the Babayaga model is that the residents will be actively engaged with the world politically, socially and culturally.

“Staying intelligent will keep us healthy…. I believe women who are happy, not bored, will live healthier lives.”
Thérèse Clerc

“To live long is a good thing but to age well is better.”
Thérèse Clerc

Excerpts via/More Senior Planet

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Photograph via Senior Planet

Madrid: Manspreading? No, thank you.

Madrid public transportation officials have launched a campaign that seeks to dissuade (male) passengers from spreading their legs limiting the space of others nearby.

"The mission of this new signage is to remember the need to maintain civic behavior and to respect the space of everyone on board the bus." 
EMT, Spanish bus operator

(via Washington Post)

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image via CNN

Female Architects: A Dialogue

Melbourne Pushes for Gender Equality

Melbourne is installing ten pedestrian crossing lights depicting a woman in a dress instead of "the usual male figure" in order to reduce unconscious bias. This is sparking a debate, of course.
(The Sydney Morning Herald)

London introduced similar changes during Pride Week last year (with some of the temporary traffic lights becoming permanent), the German city of Zwickau in 2004 (more).

"Some people have expressed a little scepticism wondering whether it's gesture politics rather than having any real substance. But these symbols are a practical and meaningful way to demonstrate that in fact 50 per cent of our population is female and should therefore also be represented at traffic lights." Martine Letts

"There are many small — but symbolically significant — ways that women are excluded from public space." Fiona Richardson

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Photograph via RTE

An Ancient Matrilineal Society in New Mexico

"Following a recent dig, archaeologists found that New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon was home to a matrilineal society -- one that saw power descend through maternal family lines -- between the 9th to mid-12th centuries.

Publishing their results in the journal Nature, archaeologists came to this conclusion by studying nine individuals buried in the largest house in the canyon Pueblo Bonito.

Thousands of ancient indigenous Americans worked in and lived in this 650-room building, each building of which had a different use. In this study, archaeologists assessed Room 33, a royal burial chamber." (ati)

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image via International Business Times

Pretty Old: Weibliche Armut im Alter muss nicht sein

Vortrag und Diskussion mit Petra Leschanz
Mittwoch, 25. Jänner 2017, 16.30 Uhr, Infocafè palaver, Graz
Kostenlos, keine Anmeldung vonnöten

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Foto via Hotel Feichtinger

A Woman's Place Is In The Street

City governments in Spain are removing street names that are associated with General Francisco Franco's rule and "using the opportunity to commemorate more women, who currently lend their names to just 5 percent of Spain's streets." Those 5% featured are usually saints or nuns. According to El Diario, 137 Madrid streets are named after female saints, only one is named after a female teacher.

"It's almost as if the situation is the practical confirmation of the popular saying - that a woman's place is not in the street, but in the house." Patricia Arias Chachero

In Valencia, four out of five newly named streets have to bear the names of women. In one district, eight streets are being renamed and the public can choose from a list that includes Marie Curie and Rosa Luxemburg. Bilbao, Oviedo and Càdiz are some of the cities updating street names. (via CityLab)

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Image via Wikipedia

Vortrag in Graz: Fußball, Sexismus und Homophobie - eine unheilige Allianz

"Die EM hat gezeigt: Fußball ist ein Ort, an dem vieles möglich ist, was an anderen Orten als überwunden gilt." Mehr: LINK

Mit: Nikola Staritz, Hobbykickerin, Politikwissenschafterin (fairplay & malmoe)
Mittwoch 28.09.2016, 17:00 Uhr
Frauenservie Graz, Lendplatz 38

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Foto via Falter

"Park Like a Girl"

"All this does is reinforce the stereotype that women are bad at parking." Have a look at Web Urbanist's wonderful collection of "pink ladies parking places" from around the world: LINK

Wochenende

Colombian band Bomba Estèreo released the album "Amanecer" in 2015. It was placed 50th in Rolling Stone's list of the year's best albums, the song "Soy Yo" was selected for the "FIFA 16" soundtrack. This week, the band released the official video, "an insanely cute celebration of brown girls". According to frontwoman Li Saumet, the song and the clip tackle "bullying and intolerance, issues that worry all of us". The clip - the result of an open-submission idea contest - was shot in New York City. The winner was Danish director Torben Kjelstrup who was inspired by a photograph of his girlfriend from the 1990s - braces, red hair and a confident look. Kjelstrup started building a universe around this character and chose Sarai (from the moment he saw her he knew she was the one) who had her acting debut in the "Soy Yo" music video. Sarai's parents are from Costa Rica and Peru and live in New Jersey.

"So, yeah, this is a well-made music video, and the song is pretty catchy. But for the Latino community, this video is a really big deal even beyond all that. Why? Because I almost never saw myself represented in the media when I was a kid." Alicia Barrón, Upworthy

"All this to say that, my heart was filled with nostalgic joy and magical brown girl pride because I immediately saw my former awkward self in her. Only at her age, I wasn’t as confident but had this music video existed in my day, perhaps I would have owned my wavy bangs, bushy light eyebrows, and, er, unique sense of style." Cindy Rodriguez, Huffington Post

"This tiny girl can teach you how to be awesome. Haters begone. From this moment onwards, I refuse to take life advice from anyone but the young star of Bomba Estéreo's "Soy Yo" video." Estelle Tang, Elle

May your weekend be as smashing as this video.

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via Diversity is Beautiful
9 September 2016