Evaluating Women's Satisfaction of Exclusive Public Spaces Quality with Emphasis on Sense of Safety; Case Study: Boostan-e Madaran Park, Andisheh New Town– Tehran

Introduction Each city and local community is considered a unique model that has its own people, physical spaces and urban structures, values, and history. Therefore, each city also has its own security problems. Some of them are related to the rights of their local community. So, some cities offer more services to their local community than other people. Changes in recent decades have caused new facilities of today's cities to be unable to provide peace and security to their citizens as in the past. There are countless factors in cities that can threaten, reduce, or eliminate security in cities. Among these factors, some public spaces have a high capacity in reducing the security of cities. Due to the congestion and the scattered urban surface, public spaces always show high statistics in conflict with the personal space of individuals and violations of their security. Therefore, it can be said that today most urban spaces have taken on a gendered nature, and in practice, it is believed that urban spaces may impose restrictions on the free movement of women. Women make up half of the world's population. Therefore, paying attention to reducing the vulnerability of women in the face of insecurity and special attention to their needs, in order to respond to this lack of security, have been considered in urban public spaces. Creating a sense of mental tranquility and vitality in women, designing and planning exclusive public spaces for the use of this particular group are located in the agenda of urban managers and authorities. This policy has had dual effects. An example of such an approach in planning and designing public spaces is the creation of women's parks. This policy has had different effects. Proponents of the policy believe that the main purpose of planning and designing these exclusive spaces in the city is to increase the use of the city's capacity for more women, not to separate women from men. However, many women rights activists are not optimistic about such urban projects and see the distinction between these parks as a form of social discrimination. Given the consequences and results of the implementation of this urban policy, this question has been addressed in this study: Does promoting women's understanding of the security of the women's park space increase their satisfaction and use of this environment? Material & Methods In this study, after reviewing documentary and thematic studies, the theoretical model of research was developed. Then, the concept of women's sense of safety has become measurable using the conceptualization method based on the relationship of contextual components with the category of spatial quality criteria in the form of an operational model. For each variable, questions were entered in a questionnaire to be collected and analyzed in the study area. The statistical population consisted of all women in Boostan-e Madaran Park (Mothers’ Park) in the age group of 14 to 64 years. Using Cochran's formula, the sample size was assumed to be 179. The content validity of items was confirmed by experts' opinion. Also, for the validity of the research, the reliability coefficient (Cronbach's alpha coefficient) was used. After entering and categorizing the data in Excel and SPSS software, the mean and effect of the underlying components were measured using statistical analysis methods and regression correlation coefficient. Also, the relationship between individual mediating variables and women's sense of safety variable was assessed using Spearman's correlation methods, chi-square coefficient, and V-Cramers. Discussion of Results & Conclusions In this study, Boostan-e Madaran Park (Mothers’ Park) in Andisheh New Town as the only exclusive and thematic park for women with a trans-regional function was selected. The operational model was assessed by surveying women using the park. Finally, in accordance with the analysis, solutions to improve the internal and external performance of the park were presented. According to the results of t-test, the perceived safety rate of the park from the women’s viewpoint was relatively high (mean 3.94). This rate indicated the high level of women's group use (4.17), the presence of individual freedoms for women (4.06), and the proper enjoyment of the park from green space (4.28). In addition, the results showed that in order to increase the satisfaction of women from the park, it is necessary to improve the status of the contextual indicators based on the hierarchy obtained from the first-type and second-type variables. Thus, in the social dimension, the level of interaction between individuals in space and the variable of group networks of women (beta 0.527) was more important. In the functional dimension, space use (beta 0.691) was the most important index. Finally, in the environmental dimension, the index of access to environmental facilities and equipment, the variable of public and health facilities, and special services for women (beta 0.299) had the highest importance in increasing women's satisfaction