Join us for a day of learning and practical action to celebrate women of the Garden City and New Towns movements

The Garden City movement was one of collaboration and collective action and would not have been possible without a coalition of countless voices. However, in the telling of its history, many of these voices have been omitted.

Following the 2020 TCPA project ‘The Forgotten Pioneers: Celebrating the Women of the Garden City Movement’, the TCPA has been highlighting and celebrating the forgotten voices of the Garden City movement and promoting diversity in the movement today. One of the challenges to promoting diversity in the movement is the under-representation online of women in the built environment in mainstream and free internet sites like Wikipedia (more widely, 85% of voluntary Wikipedia editors are men and of all the biographies on Wikipedia in English, only 19% are about women).

To help redress the balance, the TCPA is collaborating with the Bartlett School of Planning on a Wikipedia ‘edit-a-thon’ on women in the Garden City and New Towns movements (edit-a-thons are used to enable the updating and addition of content on Wikipedia, about a chosen subject). The edit-a-thon will focus on creating and populating the Wikipedia pages for the women that are featured in the TCPA Forgotten Pioneers publication. Participants will also be invited to identify other ‘forgotten’ voices to add to the site.

Wikipedia editors, members of the TCPA and Bartlett School of Planning teams, and academic Dr Alina Congreve will assist with the running and research during the event. This is a great opportunity to gain new skills and highlight the achievements of women in the built environment. The programme will include a presentation about women in the Garden City movement and New Towns programme, training on how to create/edit content on Wikipedia, and research and editing time.

Lunch will be provided.

This event is directed at the Bartlett School of Planning staff, students and alumni, but is ideal for anyone with an interest in writing and the built environment. It provides an opportunity to collaborate and play a practical role in recording and celebrating the legacy of women’s involvement in the Garden City movement and beyond. It will involve some prior preparation and only 30 spaces are available, therefore we ask that you are able to commit to attending, to ensure the best experience and outcome for everyone involved.

Book your tickets early as there are limited places!

We hope this will be the first in a series of collaborative events aimed at improving the diversity of voices represented in online histories and dialogue on planning and the built environment.

This event is a collaboration between the TCPA and:

Draft Programme