Compostela, Women’s Terrain

Cities are spaces for cohabitation, transit of people, vital experiences, work, leisure, learning… They are places where different realities and necessities come together, the urban and the rural, but also areas where inequalities with regard to resources, services and enjoyment of social, economic and cultural rights are generated and where the gender gap appears in all of them. Cities are what those people are who live in them, who visit them, who come and go and who occupy private spaces, but mostly, cities are what those people are, who create public spaces. 

This is why the Department of Equality supports this project, involving social and economic sectors of Compostela in the building of the city that we want: more available, more inclusive and more equal, because a city which is thought for women is a better city for the entire population.

 

 

 

Work methodology

The aim of this project is, on the one hand, to provide a space where the resources of different fields which are working in favour of gender equality in the city can come together and which can give them visibility and availability. On the other hand, it is also the aim of this project to involve the social agents and the economic sector in order to create a map of resources, places and equipments which help to build a city which is fair and friendly to women. At the same time, the map will serve to explore a touristic dimension geared towards making Compostela a women friendly city, whose stamp will help to consolidate the Galician capital as a touristic destiny.

Given the importance of the catering sectors and tourism for the economic and social development of the city and their influence on the neighbourhood as well as on the people which visit us, we would like them to be a driving agent in the creation process of “Compostela, women’s terrain”. For this reason we start sending a letter to hotels, hostels, restaurants and tourism offices of Santiago to invite them to assess which contents related to the promotion of equal opportunities between women and men they could include in their practices and spaces. This letter was sent at the end of February, taking as a reference point data bases of TurGAlicia and Turismo de Santiago. In the same way, we will try to contact actively the different representative associations of the sector in Compostela.

Those establishments which showed particular interest on the project were sent a form to collect direct information about the teams and the gender perspective in their management; data which helped to perform an initial assessment, given the diversity of establishments, and for the formulation of the commitments. The next step was contacting personally the persons in charge through interviews to show them the materials of the project and the commitments which they need to assume to be a cooperating establishment of WT and to carry the hallmark “women friendly”.

Nevertheless, this is an open project and every establishment that wants to be part of it is free to join “Compostela, Women’s Terrain” at any time by following the guidelines which can be found at the section Join.