Gender-Inclusive Smart Cities: A Systematic Review, Case Studies and Practical Recommendations

Abstract

Today, urbanisation is changing the face of cities, making them smarter. However, smart cities often overlook gender equality. This paper aims to explore the links between the implementation of smart city strategies and gender equality indicators, as well as to analyse the consequences of underestimating the importance of this aspect during city planning. This study conducted an interdisciplinary analysis of 25 academic publications and official reports (ITU, UN Women, UN-Habitat), which includes thematic coding, comparative analysis of regional indicators, and visualisation of statistics. The source data consisted of ITU statistics on the digital gender gap (2019–2024) and case studies of four cities: Barcelona, Amsterdam, Seoul, and Dhaka/Chennai. The results show that the global gender parity index for internet access has increased from 0.91 to 0.94, and the gap in the number of users has narrowed from 277 million to 189 million, but in the least developed countries, the indicator has declined (from 0.74 to 0.70). Case studies demonstrate that a combination of physical infrastructure (safe lighting, inclusive transportation) and digital solutions (mobile applications, gender-disaggregated data) improves women's safety and mobility. The analysis identified barriers such as the digital divide, algorithmic bias, surveillance risks, and lack of women's participation in planning. The discussion highlights the issues of algorithmic bias and surveillance, underscores the importance of women's participation in planning, and provides recommendations for the development of truly inclusive smart cities.