hannah berry (model gender equality
TRANSCRIPT
Report: Hannah Berry (Model Gender Equality
Policy by Bridget O’Rourke; Literature Review by
Jenny Lazarus and Hannah Berry).
Cover: Alexandra Guzmán.
Photos: Carolina de Oteyza
Project Research Team: Carolina de Oteyza,
Hannah Berry, Kirsty Ogle, Mustafa K. Pasha,
Pauline Gourley.
Data processing and tabulation: Santiago Plana
Additional work by: Noreen Khan.
Thanks to the many workshop and focus
group participants, travel diary-keepers and
questionnaire respondents and to all contributing
staff at GMPTE, Arriva North West and
Wales, Stagecoach Manchester, First Manchester
and Community Transport Manchester.
Particular thanks to: Anne Hughes and Tony Hunt
(Arriva); Jim Crenigan and John Young
(Stagecoach); Andrea Elmas, Simon Bennett and
Bob Townend (First); Paula Denny (CTM); Vicki
Crabb, Kieran Yates, Muhamad Karim (GMPTE).
Funded by: Manchester Transport Thematic
Partnership.
Additional support received from: Oxfam UK
Poverty Programme, Manchester Metropolitan
University Community Audit and Evaluation Centre –
ALAC programme, Women’s Electronic Village Hall,
Community Network for Manchester.
MANCHESTER WOME’S NETWORK - GEM PROJECT
Increasing problems of congestion and the urgent need to curb greenhouse gas
emissions make it vital to augment use of public transport in Manchester. It is also
imperative to maintain an effective passenger transport system for those who do not
have the option of defecting to private car use and who would experience strong
social exclusion if they were not able to use it to access employment, amenities and
services.
The bus remains the most heavily used mode of public transport in Greater
Manchester, carrying about 85% of all public transport passengers. However, about
95% of the fall in bus use in the 1990s can be accounted for by women and 70% of
car traffic growth was due to women driving longer distances. This, and the fact that
women are also more likely than men to live in poverty and be the ones facing social
exclusion through lack of access to a car are what make it so important to under-
stand women´s use of public transport and to take action so that it can better meet
their needs.
Despite welcome societal change, women are still more likely than men to work part-
time and to have responsibility for household chores and childcare. The result is that
women need more travel flexibility than men. Our User Perspectives research find-
ings generally serve to confirm this assertion.
Gender analysis needs to be incorporated into all transport planning, so that gender
impacts are studied and considered before project and policies are implemented.
When mainstreamed into every stage of the delivery cycle: consultation, decision-
making, planning and evaluation; and in the design of strategic objectives, equality
goals and targets, gender analysis becomes a key element in the achievement of
gender equality.
The project objectives were:
Executive Summary
To explore the gender dimensions of public transport delivery in
Manchester, identifying problems and gaps.
To raise awareness of gender issues among private, voluntary and
statutory transport providers
To make practical recommendations for improving the gender appropri-
ateness, accessibility and quality of transport services
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MANCHESTER WOME’S NETWORK - GEM PROJECT
The literature review showed that statistics are available on men and women´s use
of public transport, even if national and regional studies do not disaggregate by gen-
der as a matter of course. It also showed that a substantial body of evidence now
exists on the particular needs of women with regard to public transport. Our User
Perspectives section serves to supplement this with data of recent and local prove-
nance, reinforcing what other studies have shown but occasionally challenging
received wisdom and also, we hope, acting as a source of useful suggestions from
local people who have experience of riding buses in Manchester.
The literature review also highlights work which has been done on the position of
women as employees in the public transport sector. Our Operator Perspectives
research provides an overview of aspects of the culture and policies which have a
bearing on the internal gender balance and gender dynamics of our case study
organisations. It also captures the perspectives of men and women who are current-
ly employed in the sector, revealing gaps in gender awareness where they exists
and elements of conduct which the companies could choose to tackle. We hope this
section helps make the case for constructive action to combat gender inequalities
where they are seen to exist, both for its own sake and for the potential impact on
services that might result operations and personnel being less dominated by men.
The Model Gender Equality Policy for Transport Providers then gives some sugges-
tions to help operators to move forward, although we recommend these are read in
conjunction with other, more comprehensive guidance, such as the Department for
Transport´s Women and Public Transport: The Checklist, the Checklist within the
Scottish Executive’s report Women and Transport – Moving Forward and Transport
for London´s Best Practice Guidelines for Women in the Bus Industry.
A new duty to 'duty to promote gender equality' is due for implementation in April
2007. The Gender Duty, in the same way as the existing Duty on Race will require
local authorities to show that gender issues are given due consideration in all of their
operations and tendering. This will directly affect GMPTE and by extension will
make requirements of all grant aided organisations and private sector partners who
tender for public service contracts. More information will be available from the Equal
Opportunities Commission in the Autumn on exactly what the demands on compa-
nies will be under the Gender Duty, but this should act as an additional incentive to
bus and other public transport operators to see what they can take from this report
to improve their credentials in this important area.
The following is a summary of the main research findings from the User
Perspectives and Operator Perspectives sections.
22
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Methodology
The research was led by a project co-ordinator and carried out over seven months
by a small team. A matrix of participatory methods was used for the main body of
the work (User Perspectives and Operator Perspectives). This way of working had
been successfully employed by the GEM Project in its 2003-4 analysis of gender
and community engagement in Manchester.
A.User Perspectives
In order to facilitate local involvement, we recruited a pair of community research
assistants (CRAs) in two demographically contrasting Manchester wards: Longsight
and Bradford (East Manchester).
A mixture of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used to look
at the current patterns of women and men’s public transport use and to identify par-
ticular barriers, aspirations and unmet needs, both in the case study areas and more
generally across the city.
The four research main research activities were:
• direct observation and gender analysis of daily transport use
• general survey
• travel diaries
• focus group discussions with specific target groups
1. Direct observation
This part of the study was carried out by the CRAs in their respective areas. The
observation forms and table of results appear as Appendix X.
2. Focus groups
We held six focus groups, three in each area.
Longsight Bradford
Asian women (18 participants)
Asian men (6 participant)
Mums at Crowcroft Park school (2 participants)
Women over 60 (8 participants)
Local women of any age (7 participants)
MANCHESTER WOME’S NETWORK - GEM PROJECT
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2. Ethnic Background
56%
1% 9%
19%
4%
11%
White British White Other Mixed Asian Black Other
3. General survey
A general survey on transport use was distributed by post through CN4M networks,
by hand at community meetings and events and mailed out to residents (and col-
lected by hand by the CRA's) in Bradford and Longsight. Of the 337 completed sur-
veys, 317 were valid for use in the research. The questions were designed to eluci-
date whether men and women had the same or divergent priorities and concern-
about public transport in Manchester, with a bias towards bus travel.
The sample included 94 male and 220 female from a good spread of ethnic back-
grounds (charts 1 and 2). A quarter of the respondents had children under 12 years
old, and 13% stated they had a disability.
More than half of the sample had a job and were working either part time or full time.
12% were students and 10% retired (chart 3).
The majority of respondents (71%) came from one of seven areas:
27 respondents did not include postcode information.
1. Respondents by sex
70%
30%
Male Female
3. Work
36.9
21.7
8.0 11.8 10.3 11.4
Full Time Part Time No Paid Work
Student Retired Combination
M11: Openshawe, Bradford and Bewick
M12: Longsight and LevenshulmeM13: Rusholme and Moss Side
M14: Fallowfield
M16: Trafford
M19: Burnage and Ladybarn
M20: Didsbury and Withington
M21: Chorlton and Barlow Moore
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Half of the respondents held a driving license. 64% of the male respondents held
driving licenses compared to 45% of female respondents, which fits with what stud-
ies say about lover levels of license ownership among women (charts 4 and 5).
4. Travel diaries
Ten people responded to an email requesting volunteers to keep a travel diary,
recording details of every journey made on two separate weekdays, a Saturday and
a Sunday. organisational email networks were used to recruit the diarists. The team
received back by a certain date brought over 30 offers, from which, following some
discussion, ten of the most frequent users of public transport were chosen with
regard to maximising the diversity of the sample (age, ethnicity, working status,
parental status, area lived in etc.)
Each participant received a pro-forma booklet in which to record their accounts.
5. Driving license holders Female
47%
53% Yes No
4. Driving license holders Male
65%
35% Yes No
Sex Age Ethnicity Working status Children under 12?
Own a car
Hold a driving licence
Local area
F 25-35 Other Asian Full time No Yes No Trafford
F 36-49 Chinese Full time No Yes Yes Withington
F 36-49 Other Black Full time No No No Openshaw
F 25-35 White British Full time Aged 3-12 Yes Yes Newall Green
F 25-35 White British Full time No No No Moss Side
F 36-49 White British Part time Aged 3-12 Yes No Whalley Range
M 25-35 Other White Part time No No No Victoria Park
M 36-49 Mixed Full time Aged 3-12 Yes Yes Whalley Range
M 25-35 White British Full time No No No Chorlton
M 50-59 White British No paid work No No No Longsight
MANCHESTER WOME’S NETWORK - GEM PROJECT
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B.Operator Perspectives
The GEM team worked with a number of public transport providers to investigate the
kinds of gender issues that operate within the sector at organisational level. We
were interested in internal gender balance, culture and procedures and whether,
and if so how, these might influence the gender sensitivity of the services provided
to the public.
Information was gathered through conversations with managers, an employee sur-
vey and short semi-structured staff interviews, as well as through gender analysis of
documents such as annual reports, equal opportunities policies, job advertisements
and information leaflets and brochures.
The research partners were:
• Arriva Bus North West
• First Manchester
• Stagecoach Manchester
• Community Transport Manchester (CTM)
• Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE)
Because of resource and time constraints, we narrowed the field from public trans-
port in general to concentrate on the bus industry, with CTM and GMPTE providing
additional data.
Data collection methods:
•Short interviews were carried out with fourteen male and fourteen female employ-
ees.
•A survey was distributed to 178 employees of four companies.
•Longer interviews were conducted with the following people:
Stagecoach Manchester:
Personnel Officer, Commercial Officer and Network Manager
Arriva North West:
Human Resources Manager, Wythenshawe Depot Manager, Manchester Depot
Manager.
First Manchester:
Human Resources/Diversity Manager, Network/Research and Monitoring Officer
Manchester Community Transport:
Community Development Officer
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Women were nearly twice as likely as men to consider bus drivers unfriendly or
unhelpful. The difference could partly be explained by the problems, more common
to women, of getting on and of buses with children and prams, perhaps creating
more circumstances in which the helpfulness or otherwise will be noted.
Several Asian women had been put off using public transport by racist encounters
with bus drivers. They recommended cultural awareness training for drivers and
anti-discrimination policies.
To avoid conflict with passengers, women felt drivers needed better training, to
work regular routes and more support in the form of conductors.
USER PERSPECTIVESD
river
att
itu
des
Ph
ysic
al
asp
ects
Women were slightly more likely to say they were put off bus travel by lack of
cleanliness on board the vehicles.
Accessibility of buses to people with young children in prams or pushchairs was
the issue which sparked the greatest amount of discussion in the focus groups and
surveys. It affects women primarily, and although they noted the increasing num-
ber of low floor buses they also bemoaned a continuing shortfall on many routes.
Lack of storage space was also disproportionately an issue for women, due to the
fact that they are more likely to travel with pushchairs, prams and shopping.
Concerned about the comfort and safety of pregnant women and young children,
Asian women identified priorities for action around seating:
• Wider, more comfortable seats• Seat belts• Seats reserved for pregnant women
Overc
row
din
g Slightly more women than men were intolerant of overcrowding on buses, possibly
due to the inconvenience over full buses present to those who regularly have to
manouvre shopping bags, children or pushchairs on and off vehicles.
Asian women expressed the most concern about overcrowding, possibly reflecting
additional cultural preferences around physical contact.
Safe
ty
Questions around safety produced the biggest gender disparities of all the issues
we investigated in the general travel survey. More women than men felt unsafe
during the day and were twice as likely to feel unsafe at night.
Asian people in Longsight experienced additional concerns about racist abuse
from passengers. They liked the idea of women-only buses.
Fare
s More men regarded the cost of fares as a factor influencing their use of public
transport.
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Slightly more women than men said their bus travel was affected a little or a great
deal by buses not going where they needed them to and by having to change
buses to get to their destination. It does not contradict expectations to find that
women, who are more likely to be travelling with babies or children, or with lots of
shopping, would be more inconvenienced by having to changes buses.
More women, and particularly the Longsight Asian women, declared themselves to
be affected 'a great deal' by buses not going directly to supermarkets. Several
women expressed frustration with the difficulties of reaching hospital by public
transport. GMPTE blames the legislative framework for incentivising bus compa-
nies to concentrate on the most profitable routes, creating a fragmented, confus-
ing network of private and subsidized services which discourages people from
changing buses within a journey. It proposes changes which would be of particu-
lar benefit to people making typical `female´ type journeys.
Serv
ice i
ssu
es
The Asian women were the most vocal on the issue of the waiting environment.
They wanted to see:
More sheltersMore seatingMore space, including so that children do not have to stand near the edge of the road close to the trafficLighting on streets and at bus stopsCars prevented from parking in front of bus stopsBetter queuing systems, such as a separate queue for women with buggies and small children
Wait
ing
en
vir
on
men
t
The The data suggests that South Asian women are less inclined to travel by bus
than the women generally in Manchester. We heard that some Asian women who
can’t afford a car would rather club together to buy a shared car than have to rely
on public transport.
It appears that their barriers to using the bus include:
Journeys made problematic by the fact that they are more likely to
travel with children and may be shopping for more people.
Being the targets of racial abuse from passengers and drivers.
Language barriers.
Cultural barriers, such as not wanting to share public space with
unknown men and particular sensitivity to overcrowded spaces.
The Asian women were generally very keen on the idea of community transport,
which is not on offer in Longsight in the same way as East Manchester. They want-
ed there to be minibuses to do small trips such as shops, supermarkets, hospitals
and health centres.
Recommendations included:
Women-only busesCultural awareness training for drivers and anti-discrimination policiesWider, more comfortable seats, seat belts and seats reserved for pregnantwomen, to assist pregnant women and those travelling with young childrenMore shelters and seating and better lighting at bus stopsMore space at bus stops, including so that children do not have to stand near the edge of the road close to the trafficCars prevented from parking in front of bus stopsSeparate queues for women with buggies and small children
Sp
ecif
ic c
on
cern
s o
f A
sia
n p
eo
ple
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More than twice the number of women as men were seen to combine modes of
transport within a single return journey when going to shops outside their immedi-
ate area.
Slight gender differences were seen in the following (not necessarily statistically
significant differences):
Women more likely to say the bus is their main mode of transport
Men more likely to say the private car is their main mode of transport
Men more likely to say they regularly travel by bicycle
Men more likely to say they walk to the shops within their area
Women more likely to say they travel by taxi
Women more likely to say they take the car to shops within their local area,
and to ‘community meetings’.
More significant gender differences:
More men than women cycle to work
More men go to work by car
More men said they use the car to deliver children to school
More than twice as many women as men walk their children to school
Women were nearly three times more likely to go by taxi to hospital
Women were more likely to take the car to community meetings and twice
as likely as men to walk.
Over twice as many men as women said the question about community
meetings was not applicable, which could be seen to reinforce GEM’s
previous research finding that women are more likely than men to attend
community meetings.
Non-local shops and community meetings were the only destinations to
which greater numbers of women than men said the car was their primary
means of travel.
Other forms of transport
Overcrowding and feelings of insecurity after dark were the respondents´ main
concerns about trains.
Trams were seen as a good option if you are travelling with children and
pushchairs, though bad for cyclists
Community transport recommendations included:
Local drop-off pointsCommunity buses for school holidaysCommunity minibuses from supermarket car parksMinibus to local hospitals, health centres, schools, children centresSpecial buses for people with pushchairs to take them to local places for days out, such as to the Trafford Centre, municipal events and other local attractions.School minibuses collecting from various points on the route, to easetraffic congestion
Mo
des o
f tr
an
sp
ort
MANCHESTER WOME’S NETWORK - GEM PROJECT
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OPERATOR PERSPECTIVES
Reality:
Men make up between 91% and 94% of the workforces at Arriva North West, First
Manchester, Stagecoach Manchester and CTM, and 67% at GMPTE. Two of the
most segregated job areas at the bus companies are bus driving and crafts jobs,
which include bus fitters, electricians, engineers and body-makers. Women are
predominately employed in administration, finance, customer services, marketing
and office cleaning.
We would not expect to see 50:50 gender split in the industry, but current levels
are unlikely to reflect the numbers of women who would be happy to work in tradi-
tionally male transport related jobs.
Employee perceptions:
More than half of the female and 33% of the male survey respondents thought
areas of their company were male domininated, particularly
crafts jobs, management and bus driving, which reflects the reality. The female
dominated areas were thought to be administrative and clerical work, again cor-
rectly.
The most common reason people gave for male dominance within the transport
industry was that it has traditionally been considered a man´s job. Many were of
the opinion that this was slowly changing, however.
Most interviewees thought their job equally suitable for men and women, though
this was less the view of those working in heavy depot jobs such as engineering.
Wo
rkfo
rce b
ala
nce
Reality:
The recent intake of Eastern European drivers is likely to be part of the reason that
the predicted rise in numbers of women drivers has not occurred.
Very few apprenticeships are taken up by women, possibly because these are the
heavy, dirty jobs most likely to be deemed more suitable for men. Open minded-
ness among personnel officers, special attempts to reassure and encourage young
women who get as far as a site tour, gender awareness training for the Job Centre
staff responsible for apprentice recruitment and tailored promotional materials
made available for them to use, would all help raise numbers of female appren-
tices.
It seems that the companies do make an effort to balance images of men and
women in advertisements, but more could be done, particularly on the websites, to
make it explicit that women are welcome and expected to apply. It is good practice
to make direct reference to the underrepresented gender.
Clear equal opportunities procedures - such as detachable monitoring sheets on
application forms and relevant training for anyone involved in a recruitment panel
- are essential to avoid value judgements by individual managers leading to dis-
crimination on gender and other grounds. GMPTE and Arriva both demonstrate
best practice in this respect.
Recru
itm
en
t an
d s
ele
cti
on
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Employee perceptions:
It would appear from employee responses that none of the companies has operat-
ed any high profile or recent initiatives to improve the gender balance of their
teams, or has sought to engage current employees in a collective strategy to this
end.
More than half of employee suggestions for attracting more women were for more
adverts and recruitment campaigns targetted at women. The next most common
response was about encouraging women to go into engineering, management and
apprenticeships.
Men and women were divided on whether or not more women in the workforce
would benefit the public, but a majority of men thought it could potentially benefit
the company. Most of the reasons given for this related to a perception that women
drivers relate better with the public.Recru
itm
en
t an
d s
ele
cti
on
Reality:
Managerial tiers at the three companies are male dominated, although less so at
Stagecoach Manchester and GMPTE. GMPTE has set targets to increase the
number of female senior managers and has been successful in doing so.
The fact that most positions of oversight and design of services are occupied by
men at the current time could have an impact on services.
Involving women in service design is thought to be more likely to ensure that
women’s particular knowledge of problems and solutions are incorporated and that
services conform with the performance levels women expect from today’s
lifestyles.
Employee perceptions:
Nearly twice as many of the women surveyed felt that men's views were more
highly valued in decision making, although the majority of both sexes (81% of men;
70% of women) thought both were valued equally.
Many more women than men (25% compared to 3.6%) felt that men have higher
status within their company. There is a chance that men and women could have
interpreted the word status slightly differently.
More women said they feel they have the of management and women were more
likely to feel they are well consulted by management.
Decis
ion
makin
gE
mp
loy
men
t co
nd
itio
ns Reality:
Positive initiatives for reducing gender discrimination in the workplace include:
Childcare voucher schemes or salary sacrifice schemes, as operated by Arriva
and Stagecoach.
Adequate toilet facilities. More than one of the companies suffers from
inadequate toilet provision when out on the road, which could be particularly
discouraging for women drivers.
Introduction of part shifts, flexibility and the option of working a shorter week.
It is important that the changes are agreed through negotiation and involve
the unions to ensure existing workers´ rights are not detrimentally affected.
A support network for women drivers, as is being initiated at Arriva North West
A ‘buddy’ system for new female recruits, not operated by any of the companies
MANCHESTER WOME’S NETWORK - GEM PROJECT
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Em
plo
ym
en
t co
nd
itio
ns
Employee perceptions:
More men than women said childcare was 'an issue' for them in their job - 22% of
men compared to 15% of women. However, nearly twice as many women as men
said they had caring responsibilities. One possible explanation could be that
women were keen not present childcare as ‘an issue’ in the sense of presenting a
conflict of interests with their work responsibilities, so as not to reinforce stereo-
types about the difficulties of employing working mothers. either way, the results
show that both sexes find it difficult to cover childcare costs and to square family
life with the requirements of the job.
Women appear from the results to be more likely than men to enjoy their job than
men.
Men´s top priorities for improvement in working conditions were the physical con-
dition of buses and better shifts and wages. Top priorities for women were better
relations and communication within the workforce and better security provision
while out on the road.
Eq
ual
op
po
rtu
nit
ies
Reality:
All the companies provide new employees with centrally produced equal opportu-
nities statements and policies at induction.
Only Arriva and GMPTE have a policy of systematic workplace diversity training,
and it is not clear much attention is given to gender issues within these frame-
works.
GMPTE´s equal opportunities agenda has grown in prominence within the organi-
sation following an equality audit. Equality issues have been brought into regular
performance appraisals; selection and recruitment training have become manda-
tory for anyone who wants to sit on a job panel and targets have been set to
increase the number of women in its top 5% pay band by one person a year - all
could have positive gender related outcomes. Public commitments by senior staff
to lead by example are important for the culture change.
Gender and other diversity mainstreaming has been shown to achieve most suc-
cess when it is driven and championed by senior people in an organisation.
Wo
rkp
lace c
ult
ure
Employee perceptions:
The majority of survey respondents felt that someone of the opposite sex to them
could in theory do their job equally well.
The female respondents' gender assumptions were that women are less confronta-
tional than men and better organized.
Male respondents´ assumptions were that men have the advantage of feeling less
vulnerable at night while being less good than women at juggling work and child-
care.
Some women felt they experienced prejudice from male colleagues, in particular in
relation to their technical skills or knowledge.
Stereotyped assumptions could be aired, challenged and potentially debunked as
part of a workplace gender training programme.
Over twice as many women as men said they had experienced discrimination
because of their sex. One in three women believed they had witnessed or experi
TOWARDS GENDER SENSITIVE TRANSPORT SERVICES
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Wo
rkp
lace c
ult
ure
enced sexual harassment; 21.2% said they had suffered to sex discrimination.
These are worryingly high figures.
40% of men and 45% of women believed women are subject to workplace sexism.
This was said to take the form of shop floor banter and jokes and wasn´t intended
seriously, However, several women, while not uncomfortable with it themselves,
were conscious that less strong characters could be impacted negatively.
Individuals of both sexes recognised that having more women around would be
likely to reduce the culture of banter, which fits with the principle of gender main-
streaming which says dynamics change once a critical mass of the underrepre-
sented group is reached. The critical mass depends on the environment; what is
obvious that with women making up 4% of bus drivers, it has not been reached in
these three companies.
Around 23% of men and women believe they suffer gender-based discrimination
from their customers. It is likely from the comments given that they are not always
referring to abuse that is sexist in content.
Male and female interviewees agreed that men get more general hassle from pas-
sengers than they would if they were women. The implication of this would seem
to be that the majority of perpetrators are themselves male, and are happier to dish
it out to fellow men than to women.
Co
nsu
ltati
on
, re
searc
h
an
d m
on
ito
rin
g
Reality:
Bus companies should make sure they always collect gender information in their
surveys and analyse their statistics by gender in order to spot patterns and ensure
the needs of neither sex are being sidelined or given disproportionate attention.
GMPTE collects a lot of gender data which it does not use. More of its published
information should be broken down by gender. It should also ensure that its con-
sultations are gender balanced whenever possible.
GMPTE records the gender of correspondents and complainants for internal mon-
itoring purposes but it would appear that the bus companies do not disaggregate
complaints by gender. Correspondence should be reviewed by gender in order to
gain a better understanding of men and women’s issues and concerns.
Aw
are
ness o
f d
iffe
ren
t g
en
der
need
s a
mo
ng
cu
sto
mers
Employee perceptions:
70% of survey respondents thought men and women ride buses in equal numbers,
when in fact women make up 58% of Manchester´s frequent users.
Around half of the interview respondents believed that men and women can be
considered as having different travel needs.
Both survey and interview respondents correctly identified that women are more
likely to be travelling with children or to the shops and are more likely to have safe-
ty concerns, particularly at night. They correctly identified that men are more likely
to be going to and from work at peak times, and to board the bus in the early morn-
ing and late evening.
These observations accord well with what is known about men and women’s trav-
el patterns and demonstrate a good level of awareness among those who gave
their opinions on this issue.
MANCHESTER WOME’S NETWORK - GEM PROJECT
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Use o
f im
ag
es
in p
ub
licit
y
Reality:
Most of the companies are aware of a need to reflect the diversity of the travelling
public in their publicity documents.
Desig
n o
f
bu
ses
Reality:
CCTV on board buses is increasingly common.
Between 45 and 60% of the companies Manchester fleets are now low floor. This
is in response to the Disability Discrimination Act which requires all buses to be
DDA compliant by 2017, demonstrating the importance of legislation in advancing
equality.