#BuiltBarriers, with Part W

In this talk for spatial equity group Part W’s #BuiltBarriers campaign, HEAL co-director Margaret Ravenscroft drew on doctoral research into the everyday spatial encounters that shape women’s lives, often in ways so ordinary they’re overlooked. From the absence of a simple hook in a public bathroom to the layout of doors, walls and “minor” design details, she examined how these elements support or undermine gendered bodies, particularly those of marginalised women seeking sanctuary.

These moments, seemingly trivial, reveal the deeper power structures embedded in the built environment. As feminist geographer Gillian Rose writes, “the seemingly banal and trivial events of the everyday are bound into the power structures which limit and confine women… The everyday is the arena through which patriarchy is (re)created – and contested.”

The talk and workshop invited built-environment professionals to recognise how inequity is reproduced through design, and to pay closer attention to the daily barriers we both encounter and, at times, unknowingly create.

2025

Learning and engagement

Collective members: Margaret Ravenscroft