(In)visibilidade espacial nas mulheres : a Praça das Novas Nações e o design urbano como instrumentos para a igualdade

Abstract

Throughout history the relationship between woman and city has been marked by inequality imposed by the patriarchy and materialized in the public urban spaces. This notion is, since past times, based in the stereotypes that ties the female gender to the private sphere, home and domestic life, and the male gender to the public sphere, contributing to the false notion that cities are projected for a neutral and universal individual. Although the public urban spaces are a reflection of the current political, economical and social processes, we realize that nowadays this distinction between public and private space is less nitid than in the past, which makes women use urban spaces with a bit more liberty. However, besides this and all the evolution that happened in the last few years, the female experiences are still lived a different way by men. Women are not seen as city individuals and female tales remain invisible to the eyes of society. Through scientific literary revision, the collaboration of feminist collectives, the execution of fieldwork and the voice of women and men, we realize that the public spaces are still not very democrat, especially for women. Therefore, the dissertation here shown is based on a study which aims to describe the various ways of urban inequality experienced by women in the urban context, limiting their city rights, as well as presenting the feminist qualities for a public space and the gender perspective applied on a spacial dimension. Regarding this, we present a preliminary draft, in which a proposal for an urban requalification was developed for Novas Nações Square, in Lisbon, where it was possible to put in practice the methods and tools bonded to the approach of gender perspective together with urban design