Gendered Perspectives on Spatial Planning and Housing in the Netherlands

In the 1980s and 1990s, gender and planning initiatives and research in the Netherlands have questioned the quality of urban space, and proposed criteria for urban design as well as environmental decision-making processes. The time-space patterns of the domestic sphere, which still primarily concerns women, have been placed on the political agenda. In the Netherlands, as in many European countries, new planning instruments, such as manuals, design criteria, participation exercises and gender impact assessments have been produced. Since the 1980s, feminist planning proposals have not been just dreams or criticism, but have led to a considerable number of pilot projects. Despite these concrete results, in the planning practice of most European countries there is still little awareness or knowledge of the impact of a gender perspective in spatial development. This chapter reconstructs the trajectory of gendered perspectives in the Netherlands, in order to understand how ‘gender’ disappeared from the planning agenda. The chapter then investigates if the concepts that replaced ‘gender’ lived up to the strategic and emancipatory goals attached to them.