Abstract

This study analyzes the policy structure and operational status of women-friendly cities. It also analyzes the policy directions needed to transform women-friendly cities into ‘urbanization for women’. As a theoretical tool for analysis, it redefines the concept of ‘right to the city’ in a feminist way. Women’s right to the urbanization is a right to politicize the ‘minimal difference’ caused by gendered urbanization to create a ‘maximum difference’, and a right to change the context of gendered urbanization and create a new urbanization. The contents of women-friendly city projects are subject to the ‘minimal differences’ caused by masculinized urbanization, such as ‘care’ and ‘safety’. The operation of basic local governments also reflects the limitations of the Women Friendly City project. This is similar to masculinized urbanization strategies that reconfigure and abstract women's identities to reproduce sexist structures. In order for women-friendly city projects to overcome their existing political limitations and move towards ‘urbanization for women’, it is necessary to shift the theoretical foundation of the project itself to 'urbanization for women'. It is also necessary to politicize the “minimal difference” caused by masculinized urbanization and set a new goal of the project to create a “maximum difference” by changing the urban context.