Public consultations are a cornerstone of the planning system, designed to capture community views and ensure that development reflects local priorities. The responses generated through these processes can be extensive, offering valuable insight into how people think about change in their neighbourhoods. Yet consultation analysis often focuses on headline levels of support or opposition, or broad themes across responses. One question is rarely explored in depth: how clearly do we understand women’s perspectives within this feedback?

If gender shapes how people experience streets, parks, transport and neighbourhoods, it is reasonable to ask whether women may raise different concerns or priorities when responding to planning proposals.

Why gender might matter
Gender can shape how people experience and use the places around them. Patterns of movement, perceptions of safety and caring responsibilities often influence how individuals interact with housing, transport networks and public space. Research consistently shows that women are more likely to make “trip-chained” journeys that combine work, childcare and errands, meaning connectivity, walkability and access to local services can play a particularly important role in daily mobility.

If these lived experiences influence how people respond to planning proposals, then understanding whether women raise different concerns in consultation feedback could provide valuable insight into how developments will operate in everyday life.

What the data shows (and doesn’t show)
Across a number of recent consultations delivered by Meeting Place, we have observed recurring themes in how men and women talk about new development. While individual consultations vary in scale and context, consistent patterns have emerged across multiple projects.

In feedback submitted by women, there are more frequent references to affordable and adaptable homes, access to healthcare and childcare, and the role of green spaces and local wildlife in everyday quality of life. There is also a consistent focus on walkable neighbourhoodsand the practical realities of daily journeys.

These observations align with what wider research has long suggested – places tend to feel more inclusive for women and girls when they are easy to move around on foot, when green spaces are well-used and well-maintained, when homes are flexible enough to support different life stages and when everyday services are close at hand. Research on gender and urban design has repeatedly highlighted the importance of visible public spaces, well-connected streets and nearby services in shaping how safe and usable places feel.

What is striking, however, is how little national evidence exists to test or quantify these patterns. Consultation responses across the UK generate a huge amount of data every year, yet gender is rarely analysed as part of that feedback. As a result, it remains unclear whether the themes seen in individual consultations reflect broader trends, or whether differences in how people experience development proposals are being overlooked. If these patterns do exist more widely, analysing consultation feedback through this lens could help developers to better understand how development proposals interact with the communities they serve.

Why the system doesn’t see it
This gap is not necessarily the result of oversight. In practice, consultation exercises are designed to gather views on proposals and ensure communities have the opportunity to shape development. Given the volume of responses many consultations generate, feedback is often summarised into key themes representing the overall “public view”.

While this approach helps developers to understand the main issues raised, it can sometimes make it harder to see how perspectives differ between groups. Without examining who is raising which concerns, some insights about how places are experienced may remain hidden within the data.

Designing with half the picture
If different groups experience places in different ways, overlooking those perspectives risks creating developments that work well for some people but less well for others.

Consultation responses often contain detailed, experience-based feedback about these everyday considerations – from comments about poorly lit routes to concerns about access to community facilities or local services. Examining who is raising these issues could help provide a richer understanding of how developments will be experienced once built, and where design adjustments could improve everyday usability.

Implications for policy and development practice
None of this requires a fundamental change to consultation itself. It suggests an opportunity to build on the insights that consultation already generates. Collecting optional demographic information and exploring whether certain themes appear more frequently in responses from different groups could help strengthen the evidence base over time.

Understanding how different groups respond to proposals may help identify concerns earlier, inform design adjustments and ensure developments better reflect the needs of the communities they serve. It may also help shape more targeted engagement approaches – ensuring that consultation methods reach and reflect a wider range of voices.

Over time, building a clearer understanding of these patterns could help reduce misunderstandings around proposals, anticipate concerns earlier in the design process and strengthen confidence that consultation feedback is considered in planning decisions.

Conclusion
The real opportunity lies in looking more closely at whose perspectives are represented within consultation responses. If women raise different concerns about safety, accessibility, mobility or local infrastructure, those insights could help shape developments that better reflect how places are used in everyday life.

On International Women’s Day, it feels timely to ask whether we should be paying closer attention. Planning consultations already generate rich insight about how communities experience change. Consultation responses already contain a wealth of insight about how places are experienced day to day – the opportunity is to look more closely at whose voices are shaping that feedback.