Women sick of feeling unsafe in their cities may need to consider disruption as a means of effecting change, writes Helen Parton.

When women would rather be stuck in a forest with a bear than a man, according to a viral question on TikTok, that says a lot about women's negative relationship not just with those of opposite gender but also their surroundings.
My own lived experience as a woman in north London likely resonates with many women and others who feel marginalised in different urban spaces around the world: only using the shortcut alley near my house when it's light, cutting short a phone call taken in a local park due to being verbally harassed, giving up an activity I loved (singing in a choir) because I'd be catcalled on my way home every week. Who can forget the troubling image of the red-haired woman being held down by several police officers at the Sarah Everard vigil"
Surely those charged with planning and designing can do more to reduce the built environment's capacity for enabling misogyny"
Across the world, there are individual examples of cities and spaces putting a more inclusive approach in place. Vienna has been held up as a pillar of gender-sensitive planning since the 1990s with its concept of "gender mainstreaming" which resulted in a comprehensive manual published as far back as 2011.
More than 60 separate initiatives have introduced a raft of practical measures such as wider pavements, improved street lighting and seating area...