With rapid urbanization and the rise of feminist ideology, women’s social roles in the city have changed, and the issue of the relationship between the city and women has become a focus topic. From the pursuit of political rights in the age of industrialization to the formation of feminist theories, then to the focus on women’s differences and plurality, feminist thoughts and practices have undergone three major transformations. Based on the critique of gender inequality in cities, urban studies from a feminist perspective reveal the issues faced by women in spatial planning, work-life balance, rights advocacy and economic inequality, and promote the construction of women-friendly city. Women-friendly city aims to promote gender and social equality through planning, design and action programs. Feminist urban studies need to break down the barriers between theory and practice to build more diverse and inclusive cities through policy leadership, spatial planning, education and awareness-raising, economic empowerment, social protection and cross-border cooperation.

Despite the fact that diversity and inclusiveness have emerged as the dominant trends in modern society, the contradiction between gender-specific demands and homogenized urban planning persists. Thus, approaching the subject from a problem-oriented perspective, this paper firstly analyzes the global practice of designing women-friendly childcare spaces, transportation spaces, work spaces, and supporting spaces at the micro, daily life level, taking into account the behavioral patterns and daily routes of women. Secondly, this paper provides an overview of the global practice in establishing the development goals of women-friendly cities, women’s participation in urban planning, and the formulation of guidelines and evaluation indicators for women-friendly city planning at the macro, normative, and institutional level, all from the perspective of urban planning and management. Finally, it analyzes and presents the experiences of global women-friendly city planning from three aspects, namely urban design, master plan and planning implementation, intending to offer a reference for China’s women-friendly city planning.

As an important means to guide the healthy and orderly development of cities, urban planning shoulders the important tasks of coping with the crisis of declining birthrates and aging population, improving urban living environment, and promoting sustainable development of population and cities. Firstly, this paper reviews the relevant research on fertility friendliness domestically and internationally, and summarizes the conceptual framework of fertility friendliness and the connection between healthy cities. Secondly, from the three stages of basic preparation, pregnancy and childbirth and child care in the fertility process, the specific needs of fertility subjects at each stage are condensed, and their corresponding spatial elements are summarized. Finally, the planning path response for a healthy city from the fertility-friendly perspective is proposed through the active planning intervention of healthy cities, the planning intervention path of healthy cities from the perspective of fertility friendliness is proposed, and the fertility-friendly demand is responded to from four levels: avoiding spatial risks to reproductive health, providing spatial resources for reproductive health, promoting spatial support for reproductive behavior and healthy life, and focusing on the spatial governance of reproductive subjects.

Nowadays, creating a women-friendly social environment has become a problem that must be faced and solved in urban planning area. The most recent studies focus on the master planning and special planning level. However, at the community planning level, women-friendly concepts have not really entered the planning and design horizons. Women’s space security, individual feelings, and value respect are often ignored during planning process. So there is a need to further strengthen exploration and innovation in women-friendly community planning methods and interventions. As a typical megacity, Guangzhou has a good foundation for community planning, and women are generally involved in all aspects of urban life. Also, Guangzhou is among one of those megacities which initially introduced the women-friendly concept. Based on the practical cases of Guangzhou community planning under the guidance of women, this paper explores women-friendly planning strategies at the community level from the dimensions of space guarantee, individual feelings, value respect, etc., with a view to contributing a “Guangzhou sample” to promote the study of women-friendly perspective in urban planning area.

In a global context, women-friendly urban development emphasizes enhancing inclusivity and equity to create universally accessible city spaces. In China, community public spaces, as core settings of daily life, have become crucial entry points for advancing women-friendly urban development. However, unlike narrowly defined “female-only” spaces, the inherently “public” nature of public spaces presents challenges to inclusive design practices-namely, how to achieve gender inclusivity while respecting gender-based perceptual differences. This study employs eye-tracking experiments to explore community public space perception and design strategies from a gender perspective. First, grounded in scene theory and visual attention theory, we establish a research framework on gender differences in spatial perception, systematically analyzing perceptual mechanisms across genders and examining the implications of eye-tracking experiments in this context. Second, we leverage experimental evidences to reveal perceptual differences across various design scenes within community green spaces, street spaces, and activity spaces, uncovering mechanisms underlying these differences and identifying key spatial elements. Finally, we propose womenfriendly community public space design strategies from three dimensions: bodily comfort-oriented spatial elements, psychologically supportive experiential spaces, and socially inclusive functional planning. This study, grounded in human-scale perspectives and informed by neuroscientific methods, underscores the necessity and feasibility of incorporating gender sensitivity into urban planning and design. By integrating interdisciplinary frameworks and combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, this study aims to enrich the theoretical and methodological foundations of women-friendly urban development in China, contributing to the creation of inclusive, safe, and sustainable cities and communities.