In the Austrian capital, all aspects of public life, including means of transport and language, are currently influenced by Vienna’s goal of being an inclusive and gender-neutral destination.
Vienna – Following a gender-sensitive redesign of Reumannplatz, one of the most famous squares in Austria’s capital Vienna, next to workout stations, a playground and lots of new greenery, there is an outdoor podium labeled “Mädchenbühne”. Girls from the nearby school asked for it as a performance space when they were asked what the city can do for them.
But in Vienna not only urban spaces are developed in a gender-equitable manner, but all aspects of public life, including means of transport and language. They are all subject to the capital’s goal of being an inclusive and gender-neutral destination. To this end, the city administration treats itself to a department called “Gender Mainstreaming”, the top priority of which is to achieve social equality of all genders.
Vienna is a prime example of gender-equitable urban design
For years, the city has been establishing so-called gender experts in the administration, who are supposed to ensure that all areas of its administrative apparatus take gender-specific inequalities into account *, the head of the “Gender Mainstreaming” department told bbc.com. You see the whole thing as preventive work so that there are no disadvantages in the first place, which later only have to be bureaucratically reversed with great effort.
Collected data on who, how, where and when uses Vienna’s public space form the basis for all-gender-inclusive action deductions. For a long time, urban design in Vienna took place primarily from a male perspective. As a result, there were many football pitches, but too few toilets in parks. Vienna’s latest park architecture, for example, takes into account the security needs of female visitors: main paths are now as straight as possible and well lit and bushes are no longer so close together.
Tradition and the queer way of life go hand in hand in Vienna
And the naming of streets and public spaces is also becoming more feminine in Vienna. At least in Seestadt Aspern, an urban development project. Vienna’s urban developers are confident that the gender mainstreaming concept will lead their city to the top in surveys on quality of life.
It may surprise many that Vienna, whose image is perceived around the world as more formal and traditional, is so far ahead of other European metropolises in terms of equality *. But Vienna has always had times of social democratic governments that campaigned for the creation of social equality and politically supported the LGBTQ community.
From 1992, Vienna was the venue for Europe’s largest and most dazzling benefit event for people infected with HIV and AIDS, the Life Ball, which took place annually until 2019 in the Vienna City Hall and Rathausplatz and attracted international attention.
Not to forget the Austrian fictional character Conchita Wurst, who won the 59th Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen in 2014 with a long hair wig and a real full beard, which is why the singing competition took place in Vienna the following year. A significant moment, maybe even a turning point for the queer community in the Austrian capital. Since then, at least gays and lesbians have been an integral part of Vienna’s city marketing.
Vienna: Transsexuals should also be more visible
Vienna is now offering its visitors a QueerCityPass, which offers discounts at all partners of the project: queer-friendly cafés, bars, shops and museums – and like in Munich’s Glockenbachviertel, Vienna has same-sex couples on traffic lights. Since gays and lesbians in Vienna are equal to heterosexual people in almost all areas of life, the city is currently making increasing efforts to include inter- and transsexual people *.
Only recently, Vienna inaugurated its first transgender zebra crossing, which is only a stone’s throw away from the Vienna General Hospital, which houses the only transgender health center in the country – a sign of solidarity. Hopefully many more will follow in the rest of Europe. * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
