Sense of belonging in women’s space through spatial planning

Abstract

Women have strived to achieve gender equality for years in Malaysia to provide better opportunities and ensure a better future for young girls. Unfortunately, the awareness of the impact of gender inequality is insensitive to other members of society besides women themselves. In order to advocate the vision of the Ministry of Women and Family Development, participation from the community to support the change is crucial to heighten the progress of Malaysian women to bridge the gender gap. However, gender equity movements are often dominated by women as women struggle with more challenges in gender inequality. Therefore, the gender issues movement cannot grow with just women alone, for social settings to gain corrective measures, participation from women and the community, men, are essential for true change to be achieved. Numerous research studies regarding women-related issues have been published, most of the studies are on western women who share different cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds. Therefore, there is a literature gap on south-eastern women’s needs specifically in spatial comfort and experience where practised culture and norms are contributing factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate spatial planning spaces for women and men in women’s spaces to create a sense of belonging that also promotes the participation of the community in providing support and raising awareness of gender equality amongst women. In the study, two methods of approach are adopted using a quantitative and qualitative approach through literature reviews and conducting survey questionnaires. The findings from the literature review are used as a baseline to construct survey questions in the next methodology. For the survey questions, a sampling of 62 respondents 34 women and 28 men are used to evaluate the data collected. The data is categorized into three: (a) needs and programs of women, (b) spatial comfort for women, and (c) willingness and factors for men to participate. The outcome of the research suggests spatial approaches to achieve both genders’ sense of belonging in community spaces in Malaysia, such results may differ in other contexts of different social cultures. The findings of the research can be beneficial to other academic researchers in further studies.