Sergey Tokarev: Why women should become stakeholders in rebuilding Ukraine

The question of rebuilding Ukraine is now actively discussed not only by the country itself but also by international communities and organizations. And here pops up another aspect of town design and development: business still considers men as stakeholders in this area. Sergey Tokarev, Roosh founder and founder of STEM is FEM project that recently launched a massive initiative on urban design in Ukraine, talks about the needs of women that must be addressed in reconstructing Ukrainian cities to the same extent as the needs of men. This way society will be able to achieve maximum inclusion and comfort for everyone. It will also only benefit the business.

Cities designed for men

According to Sergey Tokarev, most cities are built for men, especially when it comes to Ukraine. This refers to the ancient times, when social roles were more clearly divided, and stereotypes prevailed over common sense. The main task of architects (also mostly men) was to create infrastructure for a sustainable economy. The authorities represented by men were the ones to launch the building project, while men were also the ones who managed the settlements. In this way, the needs of women were relegated to the background. If not ignored completely.

Talking about designing most modern cities, the priority was given to developing road infrastructure to get quick access to workplaces, creating parking lots, business centers, retail outlets, and all sorts of business-related structures. At the same time, much less attention was paid to the needs of pedestrians, infrastructure, safety of residential neighborhoods, and inclusion in general.

The development of civil society has changed the vector toward rejecting stereotypes. However, it is a quite slow process. There are many reasons, but one of the main ones is that the business continues to focus on the needs of men. And this is a big mistake not only from the point of view of building a civil society but also from the point of view of economic expediency and added value.

Who are real stakeholders of urban planning?

Sergey Tokarev admits that he had to face this question several years ago when preparing a large-scale event focused on the relocating process. There was a comparative analysis of different cities, economic situations, tax legislation, and general comfort for life and work when transferring business to another country. Tokarev's company also conducted market research to get a better idea of what his employees – developers and their families – want in case of a possible relocation.

There was a big discrepancy between the answers of men and women regarding housing. Men had almost no wishes regarding internal and external infrastructure. Women, on the other hand, paid serious attention to safety, the environment, the development of infrastructure along with housing. Mothers approached the questions even more scrupulously. They were interested in the availability of playgrounds, parks, lighting, video surveillance, walking distance to kindergartens, schools, shops, gyms, and distance from dangerous roads. Married men were mostly guided by the wishes of their wives when it came to housing.

"And if you look at the needs, they all look very logical," says Sergey Tokarev. "But for some reason, most Ukrainian developers do not think about them. This is the strangest thing for me. Because in the pursuit of selling square meters, they forget about the most important thing in modern business – added value. And it should be the driving force behind the development of construction companies."

Developing infrastructure and creating a safe area increases the cost of the project. And at the same time, its attractiveness gets also much higher. Talking about IT specialists, Tokarev explains that prefer to have a safe sustainable environment with well-developed infrastructure rather than simply a comfortable apartment for a low price. The Roosh founder believes that this trend might be relevant not only to IT specialists.

"When construction companies start to create comfort for all target audiences, they will get much higher demand," thinks Sergey Tokarev. "At the same time, the local authorities will join the process of designing and building a comfortable environment together with business. As a result, it will turn into a mutually beneficial process for business, authorities, and the consumer."

In Europe, this trend is not new. There, one can find projects of spaces that meet the needs of both women and men: some quarters in Vienna, Austria, some cities in Sweden, and many more around the EU.

Inclusive reconstruction

The challenge is now relevant to Ukraine as well. Both the Ukrainian government and businesses have to think about rebuilding the country after the war. Women should be integrated into this process at all levels: from the active public to architects, designers, representatives of local authorities, and businesses.

Tokarev insists, that this process should be launched already now. At the same time, it is necessary to conduct an educational campaign in Ukraine and consider other countries' examples of designing inclusive spaces.

In Sweden, for instance, as an experiment, the Umeå authorities surveyed the wishes of local schoolgirls and restored a park in the city center accordingly. This helped to make the public space more visited and popular than ever before.

"We at STEM is FEM also decided to involve Ukrainian schoolgirls and students in the design of public spaces," explains Sergey Tokarev. "We developed a free urban planning course for girls, in which the participants, together with mentors, architects, and urban planners, had to prepare group projects. The best works will be refined by specialists and implemented in Ukrainian cities and towns affected by the war."

The course was created as part of the UNITY (Mriemo ta diemo) program. It started in the autumn of 2022. Since that time, the girls learned the basics of urbanism and architecture and met with the most influential Ukrainian and international specialists in urban design. Among them are the architect from Zurich Han van de Wetering, French architect and Harvard lecturer Odile Decq, one of the 100 most influential urban planners in the world Ellen Dunham-Jones, and many others. At the lectures, they share their own experience on the topic and help the girls to form their vision of the future rebuilding process of Ukraine and take an active part in it.

An educational course on urbanism for girls is just one of many options for popularizing and involving women in rebuilding the country. The more such tools and opportunities there are, the higher the chance to build a truly inclusive environment and develop civil society in Ukraine.