During my time as a MSc City Planning and Design student at Queen’s University Belfast, I heard about Make Space For Girls (MSFG) through an online webinar, it instantly sparked my interest in the issue and made me realise that when I was a teenager within my hometown in Chippenham, Wiltshire, that I never had a space that I could confidently use to play, exercise or socialise with my friends. For my thesis, I opted for a Work Based Study, I contacted MSFG co-founder Susannah Walker to see how I could conduct a piece of research investigating my hometown.
The basis for my research was to investigate how teenagers viewed and experienced Chippenham’s public space. I was inspired and guided by previous research reports shared by MSFG. The overall study involved a series of workshops with secondary school and sixth form students, a questionnaire of boys and girls, and Kocmaruk’s Assessment Method on Parks within Chippenham.
The Research Aims were:
1. To finalise where girls frequent within the town.
2. To discover what puts girls off spending time in certain areas.
3. To establish how girls in Chippenham use play parks and public spaces.
4. To determine what girls would like to see in play parks and public spaces.
5. To analyse the difference in teenage boys’ and girls’ views of public spaces.
Methods
1. Workshops – Collaging and Mapping
I held a series of workshops at my old secondary school, using my old contacts to help me facilitate and gather a pool of participants varying in age groups, I held 5 workshops (three mapping sessions and two collaging sessions). They were designed to address the following aims:
(1) to finalise where girls frequent within the town,
(2) to establish how girls in Chippenham use play parks and public spaces,
(3) to discover what puts girls off spending time in certain areas.
The workshops consisted of a 30-minute session with 10 students and were held with Year 8 (ages 12-13), Year 9 (age 13-14) and Year 12 (age 16-17). There were two different sessions, ‘Where is for you?’ session using mapping and then a follow up Collaging session to present what they would like to see in parks.
Mapping
This is a method MSFG use in engagement sessions that asks the girls to draw andannotate a map of the town on their thoughts and emotions of certain areas. Things to consider include (1) where they use, (2) where they don’t use, (3) would like to use, (4) feel unsafe.
After the mapping session, I consolidated the information and created an overall map per age group.
Collaging
The second session was prompted with the question ‘What does good public space look like?’ alongside a list of different questions that allowed them to consider what they would enjoy using in Chippenham. These sessions encouraged the girls to create a space that would cater to them and add any details they would want to see and where they would like to see them.
2. Questionnaire
The questionnaire was the second element that aimed to analyse the opinions and experiences of boys and girls within Chippenham. This method was adapted from the Yorkshire Sport report which allowed analysis and comparison of how different genders use space and whether there are any gaps for a specific gender. The questionnaire aimed to assess how the teenagers use the spaces in Chippenham and what they value in the town but also what need to be improved (aim 2, 3 and 5). It also assessed their opinions on the current park spaces. This evidence helped to back up the issues within Chippenham and how teenagers use the space and public realm.
3. Survey on the Quality of Parks – Kocmaruk’s Technique
This method allowed for comparisons of the spaces and contributed to the analysis of the most used spaces. It allowed a more in-depth and connected evidence base of the suitability of play spaces for different ages.
The methodology was based on Kocmaruk’s 2021 report measuring park quality which was adapted from Rigolon and Nemeth’s 2018 report. They used the method of matrix from a literature review to collect the characteristics through primary research conducted with youth, it was used to track youth needs, park characteristics, supportive environmental features and the specific needs for adolescent girls. Once the list of environmental features was finalised, they were assigned and adapted to form an evaluative tool. The facilities favoured by adolescent girls received a 1.5x multiplier and to allow this tool to be used for smaller parks, larger facilities such as football pitches and skateparks were awarded a smaller value. This was calibrated by Kocmaruk through scoring two local parks and adjusting where appropriate. The method consisted of 3 supportive environmental features: Location, Facilities and Design. The survey provided scores for different elements of the park that fit into the 3 categories.
For my research, the aim was to see what was missing from Chippenham’s parks from a physical attribute point of view and how these can be improved in the future alongside the improvements the participants suggest. This was accompanied with a photographic survey to allow photographic support.
Findings
Key Findings
The findings of the mapping workshops echoed findings from previous MSFG research, including the need for clear sightlines and lighting.
The findings from the collaging sessions reflected the want of spaces to be appealing, bright, colourful and nature orientated. Majority of the participants included the images of swings and alternative seating and emphasised a natural space including biodiverse features such as flowers and plants.
The percentage of how often older girls use parks and green space is in correlation with Yorkshire Sports’ research in which teenagers spend their spare time with more boys (63%) and girls (48%) spending their time in green space – suggesting that boys do spend more time in park spaces.
The questionnaire outlined the top 3 things girls want to see are: swings, dance spaces and trampolines; boys want to see: outdoor gyms, trampolines and woodland and nature trails. In terms of the quality of parks, the majority noted that the cleanliness and maintenance was important to them.
Conclusion
My thesis was completed in September 2023. Since that time there has been an increased awareness of the need to consider parks and public spaces for teenage girls. Reports such as the London Legacy Development Corporation’s Creating places that work for Women and Girls. Handbook for Local Authorities, Developers and Designers’ in July 2024, is a great guidance document in what to consider when designing public spaces and amenities. Awareness is rightly being acknowledged, and it is a topic that resonates within the development industry and outside the industry within communities. It is unfortunately prevalent the issue is in today’s society, not only for teenage girls but also the safety of young women and older within our cities, towns and spaces.
My research was shortlisted for RTPI Research Excellence: Student Award 2024 and has been presented at Cavendish Planning vs Politics Inclusivity Seminar (March 2024) and will be presented at Women in Planning - Midlands Inclusivity Seminar in October 2024.
