Gendered Interactions Mediated by Design: Sexual Harassment on Public Transport

Abstract

This paper explores the gendered interactions that are mediated by designed products in actual use contexts. Our case is vehicle design for public transportation, a product category that is, from the outset, relatively gender-neutral when compared to explicitly gender-segregated categories such as household electronics, cars, and toys, even if public transit users are more often women than men. The empirical basis of research comes from interviews with women passengers. Our analysis demonstrates that seemingly gender-neutral designs can be merely gender-blind in that they have significant impact in the gendered experiences of its users, which includes, in this case, being exposed to or feeling at risk of sexual harassment and assault in public transportation as a woman. Therefore, feminist design interventions into mobility environments can provide immediate practical solutions that would complement policy and lawmaking efforts that are necessary to ensure safety for women on public transport.

Keywords:

• gender
• design
• public transport
• script
• mobility
• women
• mediation

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Kızılay is a commercial area with a busy nightlife; Söğütözü is a business district that is quite deserted after work hours.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is based on a research project, “Improving the Design of Public Transport Based on Women’s Experiences in Turkey,” that was awarded by Carleton University as part of the Gendered Design in STEAM program, which is funded by International Development Research Centre Canada, and hosted by Middle East Technical University.

Notes on contributors

Pınar Kaygan

Pınar Kaygan is an Associate Editor of Design and Culture. She received her Ph.D. from Sheffield University. Her research and teaching focus on gender and technology relations in design, interdisciplinary design collaborations, social impact of design on users, and work and employment in design. She has published numerous journal articles on design practice and education in prominent journals such as The Design Journal, Design and Culture, and International Journal of Technology and Design Education. Previously she was Associate Professor at Middle East Technical University, Department of Industrial Design, where she conducted the project “Improving the Design of Public Transport Based on Women’s Experiences in Turkey.” [email protected]

Harun Kaygan

Harun Kaygan is Associate Professor at the Department of Design and Communication, University of Southern Denmark. His teaching and research interests lie in the social and cultural aspects and political implications of design practices and objects, with a focus on new materialist and material semiotic frameworks. He has published a wide range of cultural and critical analyses of designed things, including cases of social design, national design, and gendered design. His current research concerns the status of users’ bodies and bodily well-being within today’s design practices, including design for health and design for play. [email protected]

Asuman Özgür Keysan

Asuman Özgür Keysan is a faculty member of Political Science and Public Administration Department at Atılım University in Ankara. She earned her Ph.D. in School of Government and Public Policy from the University of Strathclyde, an MA in European Studies at the Middle East Technical University, and an MA in Political Research at Strathclyde. She is an author of Activism and Women’s NGOs in Turkey: Civil Society, Feminism and Politics (Bloomsbury, 2018) and has published in International Migration, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies and Journal of Refugee Studies. She is involved in various national and international research projects focusing on gender politics, migration theories, civil society theories and practices, Turkish politics, and qualitative research methods. [email protected]