A guide to incorporating a gender perspective in urban actions by Eva Álvarez and Carlos Gómez

In February 2020, the Direcció General d'Urbanisme de la Conselleria de Política Territorial, Obres Públiques i Mobilitat de la Generalitat Valenciana commissioned the architects and professors Universitat Politècnica de València, Eva Álvarez and Carlos Gómez, to draft a "Guía para incorporar la perspectiva de género en actuaciones urbanas en la Comunidad Valenciana" (Guide to incorporate the gender perspective in urban actions in the Valencian Community). This task is carried out with the collaboration of José Luis Calabuig, Victoria Aguilar and Victoria Calabuig, the graphic design of Isabel Giner Marco and the contribution of an extensive Advisory Team.

The Guide seeks to accompany those who have to project urban actions or plan the territory; those who have to supervise these actions and those who have to promote them, in the task of producing every day, caring, and close environment for everyone. To ground the theory of the gender perspective in the reality that surrounds us, the Guide is understood as a set of recommendations that should facilitate the incorporation of this gender perspective at all scales of urban action and in all territorial circumstances, which is why it is proposed as a set of information, recommendations, checklists and bibliography to help those who have to carry out this task.

This documentation is organized in a 137-page book format, downloadable from the Conselleria website, in Spanish, Valencian, and English versions, with a careful graphic presentation that makes it easy to go back and forth through the Guide without getting disorientated. After the introduction and indications of how the Guide works, the document offers the reader four parts. The first part explains what is understood by gender perspective, in an informative and pedagogical tone; the second part sets out the contents on which each team can reflect and debate, which are structured in four lines of work with indicators that will allow reflection on the development of the process and will make it possible to evaluate the level of inclusion of these contents in the planning figure or the urban action in question. The third part deals with recommendations on how to transfer the contents decided and studied to the documentation of each type of action, always by the provisions of the revised text of the LOTUP, with some suggestions in each particular case; this third part ends with an explanation and checklist on how to approach the drafting of the mandatory Gender Impact (Assessment) Report. The fourth part insists on the enormous importance of the work process over time so that the gender perspective is effectively incorporated into the action being worked on. Finally, the Guide provides a great and updated bibliography for those who wish to explore the subject.

The Guide can be read sequentially or by going directly to a particular section; the description of that section will refer to the contents that may be of interest to you. This to and fro through the Guide is accompanied by graphic references or icons, associated with the lines of work, and with a colored chart that makes it easier for the reader to know where in the Guide they are. The underlying idea is that the Guide offers a process of reflection that allows each drafting team, aware of the specific circumstances in which the task to be carried out unfolds, to propose its list of variables, checklists, and indicators so that the process adjusts to the needs of the place where the gender perspective must be deployed, in a coherent manner. In other words, the gender perspective has been applied to the drafting of the Guide itself.

The Guide was first presented online to the public in March 2021, chaired by the Honourable Minister Arcadi España and the Director-General of Urban Planning, Vicente García Nebot, a presentation that gave way to a participatory process of the contribution of improvements and suggestions until the end of May 2021. Subsequently, the Guide was presented in November 2021, in an event linked to Town Planning Week, in the presence of the Dean of the COACV, Lluis Sendra, the Director-General of Town Planning Vicente García Nebot, and the Deputy Director-General of Town Planning, Anna Piñeiro. The publication of the Guide now opens a process of dissemination, divulgation, and feedback that allows for a deeper understanding of the concepts and priorities in the reality of the territory to accompany people in increasing their economic, physical and political autonomy, within a broader concept of interdependence and eco-dependence, which focuses on the tasks of caring for everyone, whatever the condition of each person may be.