institute for transport studies faculty of environment gender equality in transport jeff turner,...
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Institute for Transport StudiesFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Gender Equality in Transport
Jeff Turner, Senior Research Fellow, Transport Studies, University of East London [email protected]
and
Frances Hodgson, Senior Research Fellow, ITS, University of Leeds [email protected]
Gender Equality in Transport
Gender Equality affects the transport sector in several ways
• Mobilities – where there is a failure to recognise the significance of differences in mobilities between men and women, in terms of:
– Long distance, business and leisure, often infrequent travel
– Everyday routine travel
– Migration
– Interaction with communication technologies
• Knowledge – where there is a failure to develop knowledge that contributes to a gendered mobility
– Research and experiential
Gender Equality in Transport
Gender Equality affects the transport sector in several ways
• Employment – where there is a failure to attend to the need for equal treatment of men and women
– Under-representation of women as pilots, drivers, planners, construction engineers,
• Policy – where there is a failure to attend to the differences between men and women
– ‘hearts and minds’ campaigns to encourage sustainable travel that demonise the school run, excessive policy focus on such things as provision of airports and major infrastructure
Transport impact on everyday life
Why is transport an important area for gender equality?
• Women and men travel by different means, at different times, to different patterns of locations over different distances, with different people, for different purposes and journeys take on different significances. These differences in travel are not addressed systematically by current transport policy and provision.
• Women’s time poverty
• Health consequences
• Uneven accessibilities to such things as employment, training and healthcare
• Journeys repressed/suppressed due to personal security concern and poor accessibility
Transport: an area of changing gender relations?
“We have a very, very large number of women that work at Heathrow, because it's so flexible. We have lots of people doing 'tarmac transfers' of babies and children - they can come into work at four in the afternoon and hand over the children to their partners. It works because people know what they're doing months in advance, and are able to make plans." Amicus Union rep on unofficial stoppage of BA check-in staff.
Source: BBC News online 30th July, 2003
A woman pilot will have to leave the job she loves if British Airways does not allow her to work part-time to look after her daughter, a tribunal heard. Ms Starmer told the tribunal BA's "family-unfriendly working practices" reinforced male-dominated traditions. Source: BBC News online 9th March, 2007
Gender differences in Mobility
• Although women and men make a similar number of trips each year, men tend to travel further than women;
• Men are also much more likely than women to travel as car drivers, while women are more likely to travel as car passengers, or on foot.
• Women are slightly more likely than men to travel by public transport, especially to work, with their greater use of buses outweighing men's slightly greater use of trains.
• Women and men also travel for different purposes. Men are more likely to do so for commuting and business reasons, whereas women are more likely to do so for shopping or taking children to school.
• Average commuting time is slightly longer for men than for women,
• A higher proportion of adult men than adult women have full car driving licences in all age groups.
Gender differences in Mobility
• Significant dataset of sex-disaggregated data on mobility at a National level, through the National Travel Survey.
• However, even these datasets do not provide sex-disaggregated data on time of day of travel or the full-nature of multi-purpose complex journey patterns undertaken by women
• Time use data may be of significant benefit in highlighting the complexity of mobility patterns and the interaction between people in scheduling mobility and the interaction between mobility and other household activities
• Time-use data is only available at a national level and still exploratory in influencing transport policy
• How can communication technologies change mobility patterns, experience of mobility and data-gathering?
Gender differences in Travel Time by Purpose
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Gender differences in Travel Time
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Gender Travel Time Differences by Life Stage and Purpose
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Gender differences in personal security
… perpetrators of domestic abuse often restrict their partners mobility, by restricting access to money, removing parts of cars to prevent women using them, preventing or discouraging women from learning to drive, etc. (Reid-Howie Associates, 2000, p. 21)
• As with fear of crime generally, the problem is worse at night than by day, when:
• 53% women and 23% men feel unsafe waiting on a train platform
• 44% women and 19% men feel unsafe waiting at a bus stop
• 47% women and 21% men feel unsafe walking from the bus stop/station
• 46% women and 24% men feel unsafe walking in a multi storey car park
(Crime Concern/Transport and Travel Research, 1997)
Gender Equality in Transport Knowledge: research
• How do we create knowledge in the transport sector that promotes gender equality and who is involved in its creation?
• Only 4 women professors in the field of Transport Planning in UK
• There is no inclusion of gender differences as a policy research area in FP7 Transport theme Research Programme
Gender Inequality in Employment
• Women make up only 9 per cent of workers in the sector
• Significant variations exist within the sector, with air industry appearing to be much better. However, further examination reveals that almost all of that is check-in and cabin crew and the reverse is true in baggage handling etc.
• Employment in transport sector is difficult to define and measure due to the nature of Industry Classification system
• How can we collect data for indicators on gender equality within transport sector employment?
Gender Inequality in Employment
Gender Equality and Transport Policy
• The targets and drivers for UK transport policy make no mention of gender equality as an objective– By 2007-08, make journeys more reliable on the strategic road network.
– Improve punctuality and reliability of rail services to at least 85% by 2006, with further improvements by 2008. By 2010, increase the use of public transport (bus and light rail) by more than 12% in England compared with 2000 levels,
– By 2010-11, the ten largest urban areas will meet the congestion targets set in their local transport plan relating to movement on main roads into city centres.
– Reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in Great Britain in road accidents by 40% and the number of children killed or seriously injured by 50%, by 2010 compared with the average for 1994-98,
– Improve air quality by meeting the Air Quality Strategy targets
– To reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 12.5% below 1990 levels in line with our Kyoto commitment and move towards a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide
Gender Equality and Transport Policy
• UK and European transport policy is increasingly delivered by private sector
• Transport remains a very significant area of public expenditure and the public sector provides significant revenue for its operation and hence has leverage over the nature of gender equality in the sector
• Work for European Parliament highlights the positive position UK public bodies are in by having far more comprehensive and robust sex-disaggregated data sets
• Work for the World Bank highlights the need for robust auditing of transport sector efforts to mainstream gender as processes are not producing changes in culture of institutions and transforming gender relations
Future Challenges
• How can capacity be built to identify the relevance of transport policy to gender equality?
• To what extent can data on gender differences in mobility patterns at the level of public body boundaries as all sex-disaggregated data at a national level?
• How can culture change within transport sector be created so that indicators are useful tool for generating better performance within public bodies within sector towards developing policy ?
• How can public bodies in this sector be audited to ensure compliance?
• How can change be encouraged in the private sector delivering public services?
• How does our interaction with communication technologies change mobility patterns, knowledge creation, employment practices and participation in policy and decision-making?