Primer on Planners Looking at Equity in the Planning Profession

When thinking about equity in the context of an entire profession, there are three aspects to keep in mind:

1. Who are the people doing the work? Is the profession comprised of individuals who reflect broader society as a whole? For example, if people with disabilities comprise 22% of the general population, do 22% of the professionals identify as disabled?
2. What kind of work are they doing? What are the professional standards and who upholds them? What kind of jobs are available to the professionals, and do professionals from various backgrounds have equal opportunities to do any of those jobs? For example, if the profession includes jobs as diverse as being a developer and being a social planner, are women and men just as likely to take either role? What about racialized planners?
3. What are the outcomes of that work? The professionals’ work has a real life impact. What are the positive and negative impacts of the work, and are the positive and negative impacts equitably distributed? Or, are some groups positively impacted more while other groups are negatively impacted more? In which communities are new highway expansions, energy/chemical/waste facilities, factories, and other polluting industries typically placed? In which communities are assets (schools, libraries, parks, bike lanes) and policies (heritage protections, single-family zoning) that raise property values typically placed?

Around the world, professional planning organisations and their memberships are trying to answer these questions. This pages serves as a sort of index of the work and will be added to over time. Please contact me to for corrections and additions!

Sources of the Equity Focus in Planning

Overall, equity work within the planning professions is being directed in a variety of ways — by the United Nations, by national professional organisations, and by the membership of professionals themselves.

Internationally, Habitat III (United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development held in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016 — a bi-decennial UN-convened conference) resulted in the New Urban Agenda, which has been endorsed by the UN General Assembly. The New Urban Agenda is intended to shape national urban planning towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. A core theme of the New Urban Agenda is integrating equity into development as a matter of social justice. This reflects all Sustainable Development Goals, and Goal 5: Gender Equality and Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities more specifically.

Nationally, some planning professions are leading equity work, as well as national governments. See below for more detailed information from national planning organizations. I think it is important to point out that a) the work currently focuses on gender equity and gender mainstreaming, and b) the work is currently occurring in and being led by the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It is unclear how planning organisations in the Caribbean, Central and South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are being engaged on and included in this work, and whether the white western lens resonates with planners in other contexts.

Institutionally, there are a number of not-for-profit, advocacy groups supporting equity in cities, such as Women in Cities International, a Safe World for Women, City for All Women Initiative, Global Gender and Climate Alliance, Project for Gender Fair Cities, UN-HABITAT, and Women’s Environment and Development Organization, for example. Please note that these organizations have different levels of attention to other intersecting identities, such as class, ability, race, immigration status, religion, etc.

At the member-advocate level, the work is happening everywhere. It’s a matter of how visible and supported that work is by institutions.

Planning Equity Work at the International and National Levels

Commonwealth Association of Planners

• Established Commonwealth Women in Planning Network to focus on gender equality and the participation of women in shaping the built environment.
• Published the Commonwealth Women in Planning Network Manifesto in October 2018.

Canadian Institute of Planners

• Social Equity Committee (March— October 2019). See Terms of Reference and the Board-adopted policy. I served as Co-Chair of this committee during this period.
• The Social Equity Committee’s work-in-progress was raised at the Summer 2019 Global Planners Network meeting.
• Published 2019 National Compensation Survey results. Click here for the full results. Click here for my analysis of those results.
• Open letter to Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI) regarding their Statement on Systemic Anti-Black Racism
• Published Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Roadmap and an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion webpage in August 2020.
• Published Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Membership Survey Insights Report in November 2021. Click here for my analysis of the report.

Royal Town Planning Institute (UK)

• Published a Gender Mainstreaming Toolkit for the UK planning profession in 2003.
• Publicly committed to increasing the diversity of the planning profession in the UK in November 2018.
• Conducted a study in March and April 2019 on the barriers that women in planning face in the profession. Preliminary results are here.
• Published a report on the size, structure, and diversity of the planning profession in the UK in June 2019.
• Hired diversity and inclusion consultant, Brook Graham, to prepare an action plan in July 2019.
• Launched Diversity & Inclusion in the Planning Profession Survey on September 6, 2019.
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity one of the pillars of the 2020–2030 Corporate Strategy and at the core of the 2020 EDI Action Plan.
• Published the results of the study in Town Planning Review.
• Scheduled publication of a practitioner paper looking at the future of the planning profession in Journal of Urban Regeneration & Renewal Vol 13 No 4

Planning Institute Australia

• 1978 national survey on membership showed 4.3% of the institute’s membership was women, with the proportion increasing in 2012 to 35%.
• Established Women’s Planning Network in 1994. History of Women in Planning from WPN located here.

American Planning Association

• Established Planning and Women Division in 1979. Learn more here.
• Planning with a Gender Lens: Issue Brief November 2015.
• Webinars on women in planning and more inclusive planning located here.
• Planning for Equity Guide 2019 (h/t Ray Kan)

Other Profession-Level and Government-Level Equity Work

• Equity in Architecture in 2018 (USA) by EquityxDesign
• Engineers Canada Diversity and Inclusion Policy
• Working Together For Change: Strategies to Address Issues of Systemic Racism in the Legal Professions
• Ontario Public Service Anti-Racism Policy
• South Africa National Policy Framework for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality
• Status of Women Canada Gender-Based Analysis+