By Kirsten van Dam, Director and Founder of Out Of Office

How we approach the future, will also define our answers. How are design qualities associated with femininity valued, compared to those traditionally associated with masculinity?

There is a renewed and increasingly mainstream narrative around emancipation, gender, and inclusivity. The #MeToo movement triggered the widespread sharing of opinions, ideas, and experiences around the globe. It created an opportunity to at least challenge, if not change, the status quo, and it established a remarkable moment to rethink and redefine a new normal. Building on this momentum for change, the time is ripe to revisit and redefine the narratives around inclusivity and equality, to address the invisible biases that still very much exist in all areas of our lives.

Andrea Merrett is an architectural historian who took a view of the #MeToo movement and considered it beyond the scope of architecture and design. She states that “until women and femininity, and qualities associated with femininity are given equal value to men and qualities associated with the masculine, our systems will continue to create possibilities for exploitation.”

Said differently, there is a double standard — an unconscious bias -, which reinforces stereotypes and influences daily decisions and attitudes. What we see in today’s world is that boys are still the norm — girls are the variation. Boys define the group, the story and its code of values. Girls exist only in relation to boys. We live in times where we no longer automatically accept these double standards and we need to thrive towards a new normal in design, which begins with a fresh and updated worldview on societal balances.

A livable future means that we systemically include trends on sustainability, inclusivity, and equality
In addition to gender equality, we also need to address the trend of sustainability because, quite frankly, the climate is a major topic influencing our common future. For there to be a livable future to think of, we first need to ensure there is a planet to live on. Whereas sustainability and climate change were once “something on the side”, today they are at the forefront of the global conversation. Climate change will impact everything, including cities and this also resonates with what we see with the younger generations now on the streets. The turn has now come to re-design solutions offered in the city by systematically including trends on sustainability, inclusivity, and equality.

With participation comes influence and responsibility…
The conversation about fair and female-friendly cities is not new. It was first spurred into existence by urban planning professor Dolores Hayden’s 1980 essay “What would a Non-Sexist city be like?“ But with around 2.5 billion more people living in cities by 2050, there is an urgent need to anticipate the urban challenges that need fixing soon. The decisions we will take in the next decades will affect humanity for generations to come.

More and more, designers get a seat at the table when it comes to designing cities and are brought into the creative process of city-making. And with this participation comes influence and responsibility.

We will be looking to designers to come up with sustainable ideas that empower new ways of consuming, innovative ideas for mobility and to address social urban issues, such as gentrification and polarization in a city, that rapidly becomes more and more digitalized.

With technology emerging as an effective tool for designing cities, a new range of innovative solutions to those urban challenges has become possible. Designers (and technologists) of today are building social systems of tomorrow, which define much more. Algorithms running Uber or TaskRabbit shape how work is divided, who gets what tasks and how much one gets paid. Social media platforms such as Facebook determine the shape of political discussion and analytics platforms determine prices we pay. Technology will continue to influence our lives in the city well into the future, and therefore it is important that designers and technologists understand how this can influence the gender narrative. With their ideas, they can determine and offer new perspectives on how technology can tackle gender biases in the city.

What is the future Generation 404 saying?
If we want to create meaningful design and innovation to create livable and inclusive cities, it is important to look ahead. In my work with trend-analysis, I try to give the next generation a voice to understand what their viewpoints, needs, and values are and how they will influence tomorrow’s workplaces, families, and technologies. It is clear to me that inclusivity and gender are the driving forces of tomorrow’s societies.

Today —, it’s still a man’s world and cities are still dominated by (unconscious) biases that reinforce stereotypes and negatively impact daily decisions and attitudes. Boys are still the norm, girls still a variable. But things are shifting. The double standards are slowing eroding and will erode even further by the next generation’s own progressive ideas on diversity and equality. They will bring an updated worldview on social balances and equality in the cities of tomorrow. How do we make sure that this generation, its needs, and its values, are equally represented in our future cities?

The four I’s to designing with the future in mind:

Here are some initial thoughts on how to address diversity, inclusivity and gender equality in the design of livable cities: It will take interpretation, insight, inspiration, and imagination.

INTERPRETATION — in order to redefine and rethink what inclusivity and gender equality mean, it is important to explore and research what the interpretations and translations of those values are in a future context. How will diversity, inclusivity, and gender equality shape the cities of tomorrow?

INSIGHT — involve and include insights into a diverse group, including women and young boys, girls and elderly in the process of design. Include them not only in the one part of the process or in areas where gender is an essential part of the innovation and design (such as health innovation) but also in the entire process. In other words, include the people, who will be shaping your city in the future and get them in on the process.

INSPIRATION — tell both old and new stories that inspire future generations to rethink traditional role models and to change with whom they can identify themselves. Inspire boys and men with new stories and codes to reposition our narratives. These alternative systems of thought may help future generations to recalibrate a new societal norm.

IMAGINATION — Lastly, in complex and hectic times like these, it is important that the decision-makers in companies, governments, and organizations can imagine new values and alternative futures. In order to see new opportunities, one must have the capacity to be open for other possibilities, from new perspectives and to do things differently, instead of rehashing the same solution in a different shape. It might be that new perspectives from a more diverse group of decision-makers could bring new qualities and values that drive meaningful innovations. Ask yourself questions such as “how do I create more gender-aware cities without reproducing old gender biases?” to “how can I not only bring more diversity among decision-makers, but make sure that voices are heard”

Too often, the focus of discussion is around the creation of desirable and liveable futures that we wish to see, but we forget to discuss for whom we are creating the cities of tomorrow.

About Out of Office:
As a trend-driven consultancy built around community-driven insights, Out Of Office explores what alternative futures might look like. We focus on cities, with cities being one of the most interesting places where people meet, interact and where meaningful future innovation is most needed. For two years, Out Of Office has been working on a larger exploration and continuous trend research project on the Future Of Inclusivity, where we reflect on how we can create better futures - fair and inclusive for all. How we will approach this future, will also define our answers.

Kirsten recommends The Womenability Report: Using exploratory walks to gather both qualitative and quantitative data regarding the experiences of women in public space, Womenability traveled to 25 cities across six continents over the course of six months. This report is the product of this research-action project. It reveals the numerous, and sometimes unexpected, obstacles to the equal access and enjoyment of public spaces by women, from a lack of green spaces, accessible public transportation, and public toilets, to persistent harassment and outright violence.

Note: this blog post is partly extracted from a larger exploration and continuous trend research project on the Future Of Inclusivity. This post is a snapshot of some of our insights.
Other recent activities include a lecture at Gehl Architects here in Copenhagen and a trend article on The Future Of Work with inclusivity in mind for Scandinavian Trend Institute Pej Gruppen.

Reach out to Kirsten here: http://outofoffice.bykirsten.cc/

Which future, whose future?