Early experiences of women and planning initiatives 1980-1990

This paper discusses gender planning initiatives from the 1980s to the 1990s based on the experiences in London of two practising planners when local authorities began discussing gender-sensitive cities and developed specific actions and planning policies, women’s committees and women’s officers in planning departments. The first experience in the early 1980s introduced women into mainstream discourse particularly through the Town and Country Planning Summer School. The second describes Open Sesame, a project in Haringey. These experiences are contextualised in the GLC promotion of women’s issues through their Women’s Committee. It concludes with a discussion of the current position of women in planning.