A Feminist Approach to the Right to the City: Women's Empowerment, Public Space, and Gender-Based Violence

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to theoretical debates on women's right to the city by reinterpreting Henri Lefebvre's concept of the right to the city from a feminist perspective. Drawing on feminist urban studies, feminist geography, and the literature on women's empowerment, it argues that women's urban experience cannot be understood solely through the public realm. Rather, a comprehensive understanding of women's right to the city requires attention to the relationality between private and public spaces and to the continuum of gender-based violence. Accordingly, the article conceptualizes women's right to the city not merely as a demand for access to public space or participation in urban decision-making, but as a theoretical and political intervention that calls for the transformation of the patriarchal gender relations shaping the production and use of urban space. It further examines the role of public space in women's empowerment, demonstrating that safety, mobility, and everyday spatial experiences constitute integral components of the right to the city. In doing so, the article contributes a more comprehensive feminist understanding of the right to the city.

Keywords

• public space
• city
• women's empowerment
• right to the city
• violence

Kent Hakkına Feminist Bir Yaklaşım: Kadınların Güçlenmesi, Kamusal Mekân ve Toplumsal Cinsiyete Dayalı Şiddet

Abstract

Bu makale, Henri Lefebvre'in kent hakkı kavramını feminist bir perspektiften yeniden değerlendirerek kadınların kent hakkına ilişkin kuramsal tartışmalara katkı sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışma, feminist kent çalışmaları, feminist coğrafya ve kadınların güçlenmesi literatürünü bir araya getirerek, kadınların kent deneyiminin kamusal alanla sınırlı olmadığını; özel ve kamusal mekânlar arasındaki ilişkisellik ile toplumsal cinsiyete dayalı şiddetin sürekliliği dikkate alınmadan kadınların kent hakkının bütüncül biçimde kavranamayacağını ileri sürmektedir. Bu doğrultuda kadınların kent hakkı, yalnızca kamusal mekâna erişim ya da kentsel kararlara katılım talebi olarak değil; kentin üretimini ve kullanımını şekillendiren ataerkil toplumsal cinsiyet ilişkilerinin dönüştürülmesini gerektiren kuramsal ve politik bir müdahale olarak ele alınmaktadır. Makale ayrıca kamusal mekânın kadınların güçlenmesindeki rolünü tartışarak, güvenlik, hareketlilik ve gündelik mekânsal deneyimlerin kent hakkının kurucu bileşenleri olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır. Bu doğrultuda makale, kadınların kent hakkının feminist bir perspektiften daha bütüncül biçimde ele alınmasına kuramsal katkı sunmaktadır.

Keywords

• kamusal mekan
• kent
• kadınların güçlenmesi
• kent hakkı
• şiddet

References

1. Abelson, E. S. (1992). When ladies go a-thieving: Middle-class shoplifters in the Victorian department store. Oxford University Press.
2. Alizadeh, H., Tuncer, S., Kohlbacher, J., & Karami, S. (2025). Women's Empowerment Through Public Space: Gendered Urban Experiences Across the Middle East and Europe. Springer Nature.
3. Andrews, A., & Shahrokni, N. (2014). Patriarchal accommodations: Women’s mobility and policies of gender difference from urban Iran to migrant Mexico. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 43(2), 148-175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241613516628
4. Armillas-Tiseyra, R. (2015). Safer Cities methodology: public space as the medium. Retrieved from http://www.sustasis.net/Armillas-Tiseyra%20and%20Mwai.pdf.
5. Banerjee, T., & Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (Eds.). (2011). Companion to urban design. Routledge.
6. Beebe, K., Davis, A., & Gleadle, K. (2012). Introduction: Space, place and gendered identities: Feminist history and the spatial turn. Women’s History Review, 21(4), 523–532. https://doi.org/10.1080/09612025.2012.658172
7. Beebeejaun, Y. (2017). Gender, urban space, and the right to everyday life. Journal of Urban Affairs, 39(3), 323–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2016.1255526
8. Bondi, L. I. Z., & Rose, D. (2003). Constructing gender, constructing the urban: A review of Anglo-American feminist urban geography. Gender, Place & Culture, 10(3), 229–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369032000114000

9. Currans, E. (2017). Marching dykes, liberated sluts, and concerned mothers: Women transforming public space. University of Illinois Press.
10. Datta, A. (2016). The intimate city: Violence, gender and ordinary life in Delhi slums. Urban Geography, 37(3), 323–342. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2015.1096073
11. Doan, P. L. (2010). Gendered space. In R. Hutchison (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of urban studies (Vol.1, pp. 298–302). Sage.
12. Falu, A. (2014). Inclusion and right to the city. Exercising women's citizen rights. In Monograph: City, social inclusion and education. International Association of Educating Cities. https://www.edcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Monograph-City-Social-Inclusion-and-Education.pdf
13. Fenster, T. (2009). Space and cultural meanings. In P. Essed, D. T. Goldberg, & A. Kobayashi (Eds.), A companion to gender studies (Vol. 26, pp. 467–474). Blackwell Publishing.
14. Fenster, T. (2005). The right to the gendered city: Different formations of belonging in everyday life. Journal of gender studies, 14(3), 217-231.
15. Gilchrist, E., Bannister, J. O. N., Ditton, J., & Farrall, S. (1998). Women and the ‘FEAR OF CRIME’: Challenging the accepted stereotype. The British Journal of Criminology, 38(2), 283–298. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a014236
16. Hall, C. M. (1992). Women and empowerment: Strategies for increasing autonomy. Taylor & Francis.
17. Harvey, D. (2008). The right to the city. New Left Review 53, 23–40.
18. Heim LaFrombois, M. E. (2019). (Re) producing and challenging gender in and through urban space: Women bicyclists’ experiences in Chicago. Gender, Place & Culture, 26(5), 659–679. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2018.1555142
19. Jarvis, H., Cloke, J., & Kantor, P. (2009). Cities and gender. Routledge.
20. Kabeer, N. (1999). Resources, agency, achievements: Reflections on the measurement of women's empowerment. Development and change, 30(3), 435-464.
21. Kelly, L. (1987). The continuum of sexual violence. In J. Hanmer & M. Maynard (Eds.), Women, violence and social control (pp. 46–60). Palgrave Macmillan.
22. Kern, L. (2021). Feminist city: Claiming space in a man-made world. Verso Books.
23. Kumar, M. (2016). Convergence between NRLM-led microfinance sector and government programmes for social development and economic empowerment. The Microfinance Review, 8(2), 34–49.
24. Landry, C. (2008). The creative city: A toolkit for urban innovators. Earthscan.
25. Leach, W. R. (1984). Transformations in a culture of consumption: Women and department stores, 1890-1925. The Journal of American History, 71(2), 319–342.
26. Lefebvre, H. (1991 [1974]). The Production of Space. Blackwell.
27. Lehmann, T. (2020). Gender and mobility: Literature review. Retrieved from Vienna. https://www.tuwien.at/fileadmin/Assets/dienstleister/Gender_Equality_Office/gender_in_der_Forschung/ GEECCO_Results/Additional_resources_and_literature_reviews/GEECCO_WP6_Literature_Review_Gender_and_Mobility.pdf
28. Logan, J. R. (2012). Making a place for space: Spatial thinking in social science. Annual review of sociology, 38(1), 507-524.
29. Lorber, J. (2018). Gender inequality: Feminist theories and politics (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.
30. Macmillan, R., Nierobisz, A., & Welsh, S. (2000). Experiencing the streets: Harassment and perceptions of safety among women. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 37(3), 306–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427800037003003
31. Massey, D. (2005). For Space. London: Sage.
32. Massey, D. (1994). 1994: Space, place and gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.
33. McDowell, L. (1999). Gender, identity and place: Understanding feminist geographies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
34. Moghadam, M. S. N., & Rafieian, M. (2019). What did urban studies do for women? A systematic review of 40 years of research. Habitat International, 92, 102047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2019.102047
35. Ndinda, C. (2009). ‘But now I dream about my house’: Women’s empowerment and housing delivery in urban KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Development Southern Africa, 26(2), 317–333.
36. Nelson, L., & Seager, J. (2008). A companion to feminist geography. Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1080/03768350902899660
37. Phadke, S., Ranade, S., & Khan, S. (2013). Invisible women. Index on Censorship, 42(3), 40-45.
38. Pain, R. (1997). Whither women's fear? Perceptions of sexual violence in public and private space. International Review of Victimology, 4(4), 297–312. https://doi.org/10.1177/026975809700400404
39. Pain, R. (1991). Space, sexual violence and social control: integrating geographical and feminist analyses of women's fear of crime. Progress in human geography, 15(4), 415-431.
40. Preston, V., & Ustundag, E. (2005). Feminist geographies of the “City”: Multiple voices, multiple meanings. In L. Nelson & J. Seager (Eds.), A companion to feminist geography (211–227). Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
41. Purcell, M. (2003). Citizenship and the right to the global city: reimagining the capitalist world order. International journal of urban and regional research, 27(3), 564-590.
42. Purcell, M. (2002). Excavating Lefebvre: The right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant. GeoJournal, 58(2), 99-108.
43. Raju, S. (2005). Gender and empowerment: Creating ‘thus far and no further’ supportive structures, a case from India. In V. Preston & E. Ustundag (Eds.), A companion to feminist geography (194–207). Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
44. Reilly, K. A. (2012). Review of the book women and the everyday city: Public space in San Francisco, 1890–1915. By Jessica Ellen Sewell. Buildings & Landscapes, 19(1), 124–126. https://doi.org/10.1353/bdl.2012.0003
45. Reus, T. G., & Usandizaga, A. (2008b). Introduction. In T. G. Reus & A. Usandizaga (Eds.), Inside out: Women negotiating, subverting, appropriating public and private space (Vol. 4, pp. 19–34). Rodopi.
46. Rowlands, J. (1997). Questioning empowerment: Working with women in Honduras. Oxfam.
47. Sewell, J. E. (2011). Women and the everyday city: Public space in San Francisco, 1890–1915. University of Minnesota Press.
48. Sutton, R. M., Beverley, R., & Farrall, S. D. (2011). Gender, fear of crime, and self-presentation: An experimental investigation. Psychology, Crime & Law, 17(5), 421–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/10683160903292261
49. Tandogan, O., & Ilhan, B. S. (2016). Fear of crime in public spaces: From the view of women living in cities. Procedia Engineering, 161, 2011–2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.08.795
50. Tuncer, S. (2021). Kadınların Kent Hakkını Yeniden Düşünmek. BeyondIstanbul 10, 15-20.
51. Tuncer, S. (2018). Women and public space in Turkey: Gender, modernity and the urban experience. I.B. Tauris.
52. Tuncer, S. (2014). Going Public: Women's experience of everyday urban public space in Ankara across generations between the 1950s and the 1980s (Doktora tezi, Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü).
53. Valentine, G. (1989). The geography of women's fear. Area, 385-390.
54. Vera-Gray, F. & Kelly, L. (2020). Contested gendered space: Public sexual harassment and women’s safety work. In Crime and fear in public places (217-231). Routledge.
55. Viswanath, K. (2013). Gender inclusive cities programme: Implementing change for women’s safety. In C. Whitzman, C. Legacy, C. Andrew, F. Klodawsky, M. Shaw, & K. Viswanath (Eds.), Building inclusive cities: Women’s safety and the right to the city (75–89). Routledge.
56. Whitzman, C. (2013). Women’s safety and everyday mobility. In C. Whitzman, C. Legacy, C. Andrew, F. Klodawsky, M. Shaw, & K. Viswanath (Eds.), Building inclusive cities: Women’s safety and the right to the city (35–52). Routledge.
57. Wilson, E. (1992). The sphinx in the city: Urban life, the control of disorder, and women. Univ. of California Press. Wollstonecraft, M. (1792). A vindication of the rights of woman: With strictures on political and moral subjects (Vol. 5). Boston: Peter Edes. https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/wollstonecraft-a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman.
58. Wrede, T. (2015). Theorizing space and gender in the twenty-first century [Special Issue]. Rocky Mountain Review, 69(3), 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1353/rmr.2015.a580801
59. Yuval-Davis, N. (2003). Citizenship, territoriality and the gendered construction of difference. In N. Brenner, B. Jessop, M. Jones, & G. MacLeod (Eds.), Democracy, citizenship and the global city (pp. 309–323). Routledge.