Since the 1970s, a critical awareness that architecture and the urban environment are not gender neutral has emerged in the Western world. Over the course of the development of modern civilisation, combined with the patriarchal order, the gender binary is strengthened and even it seems reflected in the spatial structure: the workplace/public realm were considered men’s space while the residential/private realm were considered women’s. This dichotomy of urban space has resulted in discriminative spatial experiences.
As more women are able to enter the public realm, the gender binary seems to have gradually softened. There have also been a number of significant public discussions and trials, which will lead a change in attitudes to discrimination. Yet, is architecture responding to this social change? Is it, at least, aware of these advancements?
Surveying the field of architecture, particularly in South Korea, gender awareness is tenuous. A prevailing perception here is that cities and architecture pursue neutrality, not linked with gender. Users of space are regarded as merely unspecified individuals. Some advocate that applying universal design is the key. Of course, ‘design that everyone can use’ is considered optimistic in that it improves more people’s convenience and safety. However, it is easy to overlook the diversity of the people bounded as all by generating the common ground of all. It may solve the discomfort that occurs due to the difference in gender, age, and disability, but it is not enough to derive a solution to specify spaces and spatial characteristics that can accommodate each different experience and activity, and how that space is designed.
The labour force participation rate of women in South Korea is only 52.9% as of 2018, and the employment rate of women in their 30s and 40s is 65.1%, which is the lowest among OECD countries. The term such as a ‘career break’ or a ‘stay-at-home parent’ only sticks to women. Care work does not only affect economic constraints and income gaps. Carrying out the needs of caring create different experiences and different ways of using space when compared with those of the people who are not in charge of such work. The relationship between space and gender can be discussed in many aspects, but this article will take a look at spaces related to care work, especially the caring of infants, which has been emphasised as the gender roles of women.
Spatial Planning that Enforces and Reinforces Gender Roles
Have you ever had a child in a pram and visited a community centre or a district office? What would the most immediate task that a person in charge of care work be after going up the ramp and entering the door? Obviously, looking for a spot to park the pram. However, even the childcare cooperative centre - an infant caring facility run by the government - does not seem to have considered this form of transport. Prams are inevitably parked and lined up along the corridor, interrupting free passage. This is because, in the spatial planning stages, the consideration of the people with infants often focuses only on accessibility and maintains a minimum corridor width. Spaces required for transport and parking are often overlooked.
A similar scenario can be found in a breastfeeding room. One looks for a breastfeeding room to appease a hungry child, but the building directory map does not display its location. When one asks for the specific location, a sign of a feeding room can be found in the niche space next to the column of the civil service office or a small space with a partition wall at the end of the corridor. When one opens the door, there is no table to put a baby food or a bag, not even a proper space to safely place a baby. This is because it is minimally designed only to be able to breastfeed. This minimal space is even considered grateful in a local county because in there it is hard to find public offices that provide feeding space.
Let’s take a look at the bathrooms. Toilets for infants are also not shown on the directory map. There is no facility for infants on the level where the division that one needs to visit is located, and when the person comes down to the first floor and enters the toilet, there is a diaper change table, which is wall mounted fold-down. When the unit is unfolded, it falls against the person washing hands at the sink, so one must wait until there are fewer people inside the bathroom so that one can change the diaper without interrupting others.
It is also equally inconvenient when people with infants try to use the toilet. A toilet booth with an extra chair for infants to sit or an extra space to bring in a stroller is required, but the toilet is filled with booths that only a single person can access. Since it is hard to ask strangers to watch over the child, only a final option remains which is to carefully use the disabled toilet. Even when the child grows up and starts walking, similar problems persist due to the lack of toilets and sinks for children. In other words, the person in charge of caring must accept the inconvenience when going out with a child, or they can only go out when someone replaces care work. Given the present reality in Korean society, in which women are often those dedicated to childcare, poor planning and architectural spaces in regards to such care make it difficult for women to use space and inevitably restrict women’s activities.
When speaking of these difficulties, counter-questions arise: are not more men are participating in childcare? When a man goes out with a child, there is even greater suffering to face. It is quite difficult for men to use a feeding room, and finding a men’s bathroom with infants’ facilities is an even harder task. Therefore, it often falls to women to use spaces with infants. Eventually, the space created on the premise that women are in charge of taking care of their children prevents men from participating in childcare, increasing the burden of caring for women. Architecture based on this gender role stereotype is serving as a mechanism to reinforce gender roles in society.
Society Advances; Architecture Lingers
In the framework of architectural planning, caring-related facilities are less considered and only inserted into the left-over space after an important - or considered to be important - programme is positioned first. They are pushed back on the priority list due to budget and narrow spaces, and do not get to be considered at all or merely considered during the design phase. Even if a feeding room or infant toilets are configured, they are not displayed on the building’s directory. If you are an architect who hasn’t been a person who does care work, or if you cannot understand their frustration and embarrassment, you may think those signs are not important information. However, would there be anyone who can live only by his or her strength during one’s stages of birth, growth, and death? If caring is indispensable to sustaining an individual’s life and maintaining society, would it not be more appropriate to consider this as an essential infrastructural demand in society?
While the architectural field in Korea does not consider the changes to gender perception, practical changes have been taking place in the area of law and institution. The Gender Mainstreaming Policy1, which was introduced around the world starting in 1995, has become a system of gender impact assessment, gender-sensitive budgeting, and gender statistics in Korea. In particular, the gender impact assessment is implemented across all policy areas - including law, planning, and projects of central administrative agencies and local governments - based on the Gender Impact Assessment Act. It is also applied to the urban and architectural policies of even the regional/basic unit of local governments. Additionally, a regional gender equality policy entitled Women Friendly City was initiated, and as a result 87 of basic local governments were designated as women friendly cities as of 2018. Women-friendly cities deal with not only women’s policy but also spatial policy as main subjects, and their key task is to create a spatial environment that supports gender equality of the region such as caring, balancing between work and family, and safety.
To tackle the issue of caring facilities mentioned above, the Specific Gender Impact Analysis Assessment of the Birth Support Act and Caring Facility (2016) has been conducted by professional researchers. As one result of this study, the ways of improving the installation standards of the feeding room, bathrooms, family shower rooms, and temporary caring facilities were found, along with the standard design (proposal) of these facilities. These proposals promote revision of the legislation and appealing to the initiation of practical changes in space.
When people change and society changes, space must change as well. Will it continue to create spaces that do not have anything to do with architecture and that just conform to the existing order, or will it create spatial designs that follow only as laws change? Architecture, which has created new forms and spatial grammars in response to changes in materials and technology, now confronts a huge flow of change in perception. It is now time to question and reflect on whether architecture for everyone was truly architecture for everyone. It must go beyond meeting (minimum) requirements for universal use. Architecture should redefine its role by providing a platform of equal opportunity for everyone, without excluding or restricting anyone.
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「Enforcement Decree of the Act on Public Toilets, Etc.」 [Attachment] Standards for Installation of Public Toilets (amended on May 8, 2017, implemented on January 1, 2018)
Before
12. In the women's toilet partition, auxiliary toilets for infants and young children, equipped with infant and infant toilets, cradles, and auxiliary chairs may be installed for the convenience of women with infants and young children.
14. One or more children's toilets, toilets, and sinks should be installed. This does not apply to public toilets prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.
After
12. In the toilet partition, auxiliary toilets for infants and young children, equipped with infant and infant toilets, cradles, and auxiliary chairs may be installed for the convenience of people with infants and young children.
14. At least one toilet and a toilet should be installed in the men's and women's toilets (except when the urinals for men's toilets are for general people and children with a floor-mounted type). This does not apply to public toilets prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.
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In the case of toilets, although only ratified in 2018, the revision of the legislation on space not only takes into account the actual spatial requirements, but also promotes the use of terms that avoid stereotypes connecting women with care.