Celebrating Women Urbanists

Editor's note: This list is a compilation of the women on our 2023 reader-selected Most Influential Urbanists, Past and Present list. We by no means consider this a comprehensive list of all the women and female-identifying people who have made an impact on urbanism and civic society.

Jane Jacobs - (May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006) The author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs is credited with nurturing a new era of community-led planning. Famously opposed Robert Moses on some of the most famous planning controversies of the 20th century. (#1 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Anne Hidalgo - Current mayor of Paris, who has expended major political capital to deprioritize the automobile as the transportation mode of choice in the city's center, with vast improvements on traffic safety and air pollution, in addition to greenhouse gas emissions.

Janette Sadik-Khan - Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation from 2007–2013, while the nation's largest city pursued and delivered one of the most sweeping revitalizations of the city’s streets in a half-century. Currently the principal at Bloomberg Associates and chair of the National Association of Transportation Officials (NACTO). Author of Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution (2017). (#16 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk - Co-founder of Arquitectonica and Duany Plater Zyberk & Company. A leader in the New Urbanism movement and the co-author of Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, and The New Civic Art. (#15 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Jane Addams - (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935) Known as the "mother" of social work. (#24 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

Rachel Carson - (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) An American marine biologist, author, and conservationist. Carson's book Silent Spring is credited with bringing environmental advocacy to a new level of public awareness. (#36 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

Rosa Parks - (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) An activist in the Civil Rights Movement who set the stage for the Montgomery bus boycott with an act of civil disobedience on public transit. Not an urbanist by strict definition, but an activist with a profound effect on the most essential urban system of public transit. (#30 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Saskia Sassen - Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and a member of the Committee on Global Thought. Coined the term "Global City," and authored Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, published in 1991. (#45 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Kennedy Smith - Expert on commercial district revitalization and development, independent main street businesses, and economically and environmentally sound community development. Co-founded the Community Land Use and Economics (CLUE) Group, LLC. Also the longest-serving director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's National Main Street Center. (#91 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Majora Carter - An American urban revitalization strategist and public radio host from the South Bronx area of New York City. Carter's work focuses on inclusion and sustainability. (#70 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

Tamika Butler - Former executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, Butler achieved national prominence speaking and advocating on the subjects of racial justice and transportation policy. Butler is currently the principal and founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting while earning a PhD in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Carol Coletta - President and CEO at Memphis River Parks Partnership. Formerly senior fellow with the Kresge Foundation’s American Cities program, vice president of community and national initiatives for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and president of ArtPlace. (#66 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

Jennifer Keesmaat - Served as chief planner of Toronto from 2012 until September 2017, during which the city underwent a period of rapid growth. Keesmaat is an active participant in the planning discussion, contributing numerous editorials for local publications that argued in favor of progressive transportation planning policies. (#54 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Ellen Dunham-Jones - Professor at the Georgia Tech School of Architecture and director of the school's urban design program. Authored, along with June Williamson, Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs. (#71 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017)

Sherry Arnstein - (January 11, 1930 – January 19, 1997) Originator of the "Ladder of Citizen Participation," a concept used to describe the level of community involvement in processes, among other core community engagement concepts.

Susan Fainstein - Currently a senior research fellow in the Harvard Graduate School of Design, with past professorships at Columbia University, and Rutgers University. Fainstein has authored and edited many books on urban theory, including Just City.

Jay Pitter - Toronto-based advocate for an inclusive city-building process and an urban planning adjunct at the University of Waterloo. Gained renewed levels of prominence in 2020, and continues to critique popular contemporary planning ideas like the 15-Minute City and the densification of cities as problematic extensions of historic planning mistakes.

Naomi Klein - A journalist, activist, and author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, Shock Doctrine, and No is Not Enough. (#83 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Valerie Plante - Mayor of Montreal since 2017, advancing an agenda of radical innovations in city planning as a response to the risks of climate change. Plante calls this vision for planning "sustainable urbanism."

Emily Talen - Professor of urbanism at the University of Chicago, following previous faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Arizona State University. Author of numerous books devoted to the relationship between the built environment and social equity. (#97 Most Influential Urbanist in 2017) 

Deanna Van Buren - Co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces and co-founder of BIG Oakland. Van Buren is a leader in researching, formulating, and advocating for restorative justice centers, as a radical transformation of the criminal justice system.

Diane Yentel - President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an organization growing in prominence for its advocacy during a nationwide housing affordability crisis. 

Janet Echelman - Famed for using art to bring a sense of wonder to public spaces. Also delivered a popular TED talk on the subject of imagination.