Uses of Time

Article 9 bis of Barcelona City Council’s Regulations for Gender Equity states that “All urban planning documents processed by Barcelona City Council must include a gender impact assessment section, produced using an analysis methodology that allows for a prospective analysis of how the project could affect the equality or inequality between men and women, to identify and prevent the production, maintenance or exacerbation of these gender inequalities and making project modification proposals, where necessary.”

To ensure compliance with the regulations, there are plans to create a feminist methodological manual with guidelines and criteria for assessing the approach of projects before they go ahead. 

Among these criteria, the time aspect plays a prominent role when addressing urban networks (both physical and social), the quality of public space (connectivity), the section on mobility, and the application of the principle of taking into account both the working week and the weekend, as well as mornings, afternoons, and nights.

In the impact assessment reports, which are produced by the Directorate for Feminism and LGBTI Services, time is increasingly used as a framework for analysing public policies. Time is a new, promising field of exploration, in a context in which the issuance of these reports is, in itself, innovative.

Time impacts:

• Reduction in unpaid workload and support for caregiving.
• Reduction in commuting time and improvement in urban organisation.

Further information:
City Council regulations on gender equality (in Catalan).