Women’s Right to the City: The Case of Quito, Ecuador

Maria Carolina Baca Calderón (), Gloria Quattrone, Eufemia Sánchez Borja and Daniele Rocchio ()
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Maria Carolina Baca Calderón: UTE University, Quito 170527, Ecuador
Gloria Quattrone: LL Liminal Lab Research Group, Architecture Department, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, UTE University, Quito 170527, Ecuador
Eufemia Sánchez Borja: PhD Program, Faculty of Law, Central University of Chile, Santiago 8330507, Chile
Daniele Rocchio: LL Liminal Lab Research Group, Architecture Department, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, UTE University, Quito 170527, Ecuador

Social Sciences, 2025, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: Henri Lefebvre’s “right to the city” has rarely been examined through an intersectional feminist lens, leaving unnoticed the uneven burdens that urban design and policy place on women. This article bridges that gap by combining constitutional analysis, survey data ( n = 736), in-depth interviews, and participatory observation to assess how Quito’s public spaces affect women’s safety and mobility. Quantitative results show that 81% of respondents endured sexual or offensive remarks, 69.8% endured obscene gestures, and 38% endured severe harassment in the month before the survey; 43% of these incidents occurred only days or weeks beforehand, underscoring their routine nature. Qualitative narratives reveal behavioral adaptations—altered routes, self-policing dress codes, and distrust of authorities—and identify poorly lit corridors and weak institutional presence as spatial amplifiers of violence. Analysis of Quito’s “Safe City” program exposes a gulf between its ambitious rhetoric and its narrow, transport-centered implementation. We conclude that constitutional guarantees of participation, appropriation, and urban life will remain aspirational until urban planning mainstreams gender-sensitive design, secures intersectoral resources, and embeds women’s substantive participation throughout policy cycles. A feminist reimagining of Quito’s public realm is therefore indispensable to transform the right to the city from legal principle into lived reality.

Keywords: right to the city; feminist urbanism; gender-based violence; public spaces; urban policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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