Who Needs Protection on the Streets? The Contrasted Regulations of Women’s Autonomy in Public Places

Starting from the important premise that legal thinking, while often ignored in research on urban space, is central to city governance and allows for the enforcement of the morality of privileged citizens, this contribution analyzes Paris’ urban regulations, programs and policies that aim at ensuring the protection of women on the streets and in public places. It looks at the variety of rules and policies that regulate the presence of women in public places and analyze the ways in which legal conceptions that are supposed to target all women – regardless of their position at different intersections of gender, class, culture and sexuality – contribute to the categorization of some groups as legitimate and others as dangerous, some individuals as autonomous, and others as in need of protection. In particular, it will explore how the issue of street harassment and gender violence in public places is dealt with differently in the new project Gender and public places and in the case of street prostitution, thus highlighting how city governance and urban management of public places shape (and are shaped by) various representations of women’s vulnerability and autonomy, along the lines of class, sexuality, culture and race.