3pm - 4pm
Applying the gender lens to urban planning
Presenter: Dr Leonara Risse, Lecturer in Economics, RMIT University
In what was set to be a giant leap for womankind, NASA Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir were due to make history in late 2019 as they embarked on the first all-women space walk.
At the last minute, the mission was aborted. Why? NASA discovered that it didn’t have any space suits that would fit their bodies.
If a world-leading organisation like NASA can, in the course of its planning and design decisions, overlook the fact that women exist, it’s highly likely that most other organisations are guilty of this oversight too. It’s a reflection of unconscious bias and stereotypical norms that are engrained in our everyday lives.
To turn talk into action, this presentation will canvas the practical, evidence-based steps that organisations can take to instil gender lensing into their decision-making processes, to combat our unconscious biases, and to lift gender balance within their own workforces, for our collective benefit.