Gender planning is the consideration of the needs of different user groups of the planned space at all spatial levels. This includes both aspects of process design and the realization of planned measures. gender planning is therefore a strategic procedure in the design of planning which takes into account a variety of needs. The term gender mainstreaming is used on top of the term gender planning as a strategic approach to gender policy. The aim of gender mainstreaming is to promote gender justice in all areas by revealing real life situations and by explicitly identifying shortcomings. 

Together with Sabina Riß from the Institute of Architecture and Design, our colleague Petra Hirschler has been offering various course formats on the topic of gender planning since the winter semester 2020. In the focus seminar "Social Space and Diversity - Gender Planning in Rural Areas", eleven students from the fields of architecture and spatial planning examined the topic of gender planning at the provincial level in Austria. In the follow-up course "Gender Planning in Practice" in the summer semester 2021, the students developed check matrices for assessing the gender sensitivity of planning projects.  Using their check matrices, they examined specific cases at different spatial levels. The framework and the content for the development of the check matrices were built through extensive literature research on existing approaches in gender planning, guest lectures and several interviews with experts. 

The results of the course are available at https://gender-planning.lva.tuwien.ac.at, opens an external URL in a new window.