‘There’s Nowhere For Us’: Spatial and scalar experiences of judgement amongst young women in the UK

Overview

This paper addresses girls and young women’s experiences of spatial forms of judgement in the public spaces of their local areas. It posits the feminist question: what is the relationship between judgement, gender, youth, and the material realities that make up the public realm? Findings are derived from two seven-week long peer research projects on public space and gender with 13 individuals aged 16–27 who identified as young women from Trowbridge, Crewe, and London (UK). We suggest that young women do not only experience judgement interpersonally but as a physical material reality that permeates their daily lives on various scales from the objects that compose the public realm – a bench; to delineated spaces – a playground; to whole networks of spaces – the high street. Through these three scales, we argue that physical manifestations of judgement – far from being innocuous or subtle – shape the geographies that young women occupy and their affective experiences of public space. These experiences should not be viewed as totalising, however; young women navigate such realities and in many cases adopt techniques to overcome them. Using an intersectional feminist perspective, our paper argues that gender is not only inherent to the built environment but constituted through its material realities. We respond to both a recent push amongst feminist academics to draw attention to the inequalities wrought in the physicality of place; and a longstanding neglect within urbanism, planning, design, and feminism to address meaningfully youths, especially young women, and their experiences of – and exclusions from – public space.