The benefits of gender equality by the expenditures on public infrastructures and transport
| Autor | Gloria Alarcón García |
| Páginas | 27-47 |
THE BENEFITS OF GENDER EQUALITY
BY THE EXPENDITURES ON PUBLIC
INFRASTRUCTURES AND TRANSPORT
gloria alarCón garCía
University of Murcia, Spain
suMMary: I. GENDER AND PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURES. II. THE EU
POLICIES. III. THE CAPABILITY APPROACH. IV. THE CAPABILITY
APPROACH AND THE EXPENDITURES IN PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND
TRANSPORT. V. CONCLUSIONS. VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. GENDER AND PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURES
The need for the introduction of the gender perspective in public
infrastructures is closely related to the type of socio-economic development that
is intended. If we take the model pursued by the United Nations1, human
development and achievements must be measured in terms of the quality of life
achieved by every person in the society, the level of well-being, of equality and
the capability development of men and women.
In the last years, much has been done in equal opportunity and women’s
rights worldwide, in general, and in Europe, in particular. The question is to
verify, with actual examples and in every sphere of public performance, if
women and men really have equal opportunities to gain personal, social and
economic well-being in Europe, by carrying out the actions embraced by the
European agenda.
Public infrastructure planning must be conducted by considering each
above-mentioned reality, as infrastructures exist to meet structural needs. It is
then necessary to take into account that men and women have different duties,
opportunities, needs and interests. In this way, the complete effectiveness and
1 Human Development Report 2010, The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human
Development, UN Development Programme http://www.undp.org/publications/hdr2010/es/
HDR_2010_ES_Complete.pdf, downloaded on March 3rd 2011.
28 retos en Materia de igualdad de género en el siglo xxi
sustainability of the project will be granted. Infrastructures are essential to
attain an empowered society that effectively uses all human resources.
One of the reasons why gender is left out of public infrastructures is because
it has traditionally been a male field. Actually, women are far away from
technologies and infrastructures as shown by the small number of them
enrolling in these academic studies. The share of women in the total number of
students, professors, researchers and managers in technological careers is small,
which may be extrapolated to their presence in professional associations and in
the decision-making public service.
Therefore, there is a weak participation of women in the identification,
planning, execution, monitoring and assessment of policies, programs and
projects on infrastructure development. Additionally, women’s needs that are
supposedly met by this type of investment are determined by men, logically, from
a male perspective that may fail to appropriately assess the social usefulness for
women of these projects.
Thus, the gender approach must be considered in the decision-making
processes of the infrastructure sphere, as this is the way to meet people’s
collective and integral needs and to attain general wellbeing.
The policies of public infrastructures play a fundamental role in the existence
or nonexistence of changes in the current gender division of labor, the right to
health and leisure, among others.
This can be inferred from the Report 20112, as it underlines that «recent
analyses show to what extent power imbalance and gender inequality at national
level are linked, with less access to clean water and improved sanitation». Access
to clean water and improved sanitation involve policies of public infrastructures.
Like in other fields, in the sphere of infrastructures, removing the
disadvantaged position on women means to achieve a major equality in
opportunities and results.
Anna Bofill Levi (1998) points out that cities have been planned and built on
the assumption that both sexes have some roles given by society. On the other
hand, she underlines that nuclear family is the only domestic structure taken
into account when projecting houses, services and facilities, leaving all new
family structures apart.
Mar García Ferrer (2003), taking the works by Dolores Hayden (2003; 2004)
as reference, affirms that contemporary town planning is based on the principle
of zoning. This means that the city has different places where the main functions
2 Human Development Report 2011. Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All, UD
Development Programme. http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/
HDR/2011%20Global%20HDR/Spanish/HDR_2011_ES_Complete.pdf, downloaded on September
23rd 2012.
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