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Paper short abstract

The paper looks at the Women’s Design Service, an organisation that has focussed on women’s needs in the built environment since the early 1980s. It can be considered a success of feminist urbanism, having survived a series of organisational changes and shifts in local and regional governance.

Paper long abstract

Women's Design Service has campaigned on behalf of women's needs in the built environment since the early 1980s. In international context it can be considered a success of feminist urbanism, having survived a series of organisational changes and major shifts in local and regional governance, particularly the abolition of the Greater London Council and, fifteen years on, the setting up of the Greater London Authority. The paper examines the fortunes of WDS over its life-time, showing that it has consistently worked against ideal-types of citizenship and womanhood, always emphasising context and the situation-specific needs and aspirations of its constituency.