Final Report Summary - TRANSGEN (Gender mainstreaming European transport research and policies; building the knowledge basis and mapping good practices)
Gender mainstreaming is the integration of the gender perspective into every stage of policy processes - design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation - with a view to promoting equality between women and men. It means assessing how policies impact on the life and position of both women and men - and taking responsibility to readdress them if necessary. This is the way to make gender equality a concrete reality in the lives of women and men creating space for everyone within the organisations as well as in communities - to contribute to the process of articulating a shared vision of sustainable human development and translating it into reality.
The TRANSGEN project has aimed at translating and advancing the idea of gender mainstreaming in the field of transport and mobility by focusing on the following questions:
- How can mainstreaming goals be ensured in relation to planning, production and decision-making processes in relation to transport?
- How can gendering (gender mainstreaming) be linked to current goals of greening and smarting the European transport systems?
- How does gendered access to and use of transport systems affect the overall European goals of enhancing employment and competitiveness?
The TRANSGEN advisory board was a high-level interdisciplinary group of European scholars, who qualified the entire process by submitting valuable suggestions and comments for the report and the policy recommendations through meetings and running communications.
The TRANSGEN Expert workshop, held in Brussels in June 2005, provided a valuable forum for exchanges of knowledge, ideas and practical experiences among scholars, policy-makers and civil servants from national units and the EU Commission and Parliament. The TRANSGEN project team was based at the University of Copenhagen and met the challenges of this project with enthusiasm and high abilities.
Traffic planners and policymakers need to incorporate the voices of women users in planning. As uses of the transport system, women should systematically be included in evaluations of the transport system. Political and organisational structures in the transport sector need to ensure a balanced representation of men and women as part of a commitment to gender equality. Equal representation in political decision-making needs to be insured at the highest levels in the EU and national level.
Likewise both public and private transport providers need to ensure a balanced gender representation. Gender resources and tools need to be available in the transport sector. Gender mainstreaming practises has developed a plethora of practises, resources, tools, methods, and instruments, which needs to be developed and adapted in relation to the transport sector. Gender budgeting should be one such specific tool.
There are clear and persistent gender differences in travel patterns. Men consistently travel further than women, men are more likely to travel by car and women by public transport, and women's trips tend to be more local. Explanations to these differences are linked to unequal gendered relations in the household and labour market and urban structures as well as gender socialisation. This means that men and women make different uses of a shared system of transport.
Given the serious environmental impacts of mobility patterns in wealthy nations, not the least in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, it is crucial to study mobility in the combined normative perspectives of gender mainstreaming and environmental sustainability. From a sustainability perspective, a question of high importance is whether accessibility to the activities in which we need or wish to participate is obtained through spatial proximity or through increased mobility. It is also of high importance to environmental sustainability whether gender mainstreaming within transportation is obtained through women's adaptation of traditionally male mobility practices or through an adaptation among men of traditionally female mobility practices.
Gender is a central stratifying factor in transport use. While age has been a theme in the literature, there is little knowledge about how gender interacts with other stratifying factors such as ethnicity, handicap, geographical location, class and sexuality. In relation to the EU aim of equality covering gender, as well as ethnicity, sexuality, age and handicap, it is necessary to develop understandings that combine these different structuring factors, as well as address the consequences of changing gender relations for transport uses.
At political as well as on research level, transport is an overwhelmingly male-dominated sector. At EU level, political committees in the transport sector as well as transport research and advisory councils have a low female representation. This also goes for transport-related committees at national level, with a notable exception. Sweden has a 50-50 balance in the transport committee.
The most recent employment data from the EU shows that transport continues to be male-dominated. The research literature suggests that the transport sector is a gendered workspace dominated by masculine values and practices. There is a need for organisations to decouple the requirements of the job from sex stereotypes about jobholders. Further, inclusive work environments need to be created to support the employment of more women in the sector.
There is a need for more data and analysis concerning the gendering of the transport sector at a structural level. Both in terms of basic knowledge drawing gendered representation and employment, but also about organisational processes and cultures and the ways in which the sector continues to be male-dominated. If the transport sector is to be competitive in a context of labour shortage, this is urgent.
In general, the transport sector is a gendered work space. In surface and water transport, female workers make up less than 20% of the workforce. Research suggests that the sector is dominated by masculine values and practices making it difficult for women to enter these fields.
Current gender mainstreaming initiatives in the transport sector relate to a wide range of issues: they relate to planning and policy, safety issues, gendering of technology as well as employment. The report substantiates that the implementation of equality programmes, and not their formulation makes up the biggest challenge.
Traffic planners and policymakers need to take into account gender from a user perspective and to integrate women's values, needs and interests in transport policy, as well as incorporate the voices of women users in planning.
See more on the official website, found at http://www.sociology.ku.dk/koordinationen/transgen/ online.
The TRANSGEN project has aimed at translating and advancing the idea of gender mainstreaming in the field of transport and mobility by focusing on the following questions:
- How can mainstreaming goals be ensured in relation to planning, production and decision-making processes in relation to transport?
- How can gendering (gender mainstreaming) be linked to current goals of greening and smarting the European transport systems?
- How does gendered access to and use of transport systems affect the overall European goals of enhancing employment and competitiveness?
The TRANSGEN advisory board was a high-level interdisciplinary group of European scholars, who qualified the entire process by submitting valuable suggestions and comments for the report and the policy recommendations through meetings and running communications.
The TRANSGEN Expert workshop, held in Brussels in June 2005, provided a valuable forum for exchanges of knowledge, ideas and practical experiences among scholars, policy-makers and civil servants from national units and the EU Commission and Parliament. The TRANSGEN project team was based at the University of Copenhagen and met the challenges of this project with enthusiasm and high abilities.
Traffic planners and policymakers need to incorporate the voices of women users in planning. As uses of the transport system, women should systematically be included in evaluations of the transport system. Political and organisational structures in the transport sector need to ensure a balanced representation of men and women as part of a commitment to gender equality. Equal representation in political decision-making needs to be insured at the highest levels in the EU and national level.
Likewise both public and private transport providers need to ensure a balanced gender representation. Gender resources and tools need to be available in the transport sector. Gender mainstreaming practises has developed a plethora of practises, resources, tools, methods, and instruments, which needs to be developed and adapted in relation to the transport sector. Gender budgeting should be one such specific tool.
There are clear and persistent gender differences in travel patterns. Men consistently travel further than women, men are more likely to travel by car and women by public transport, and women's trips tend to be more local. Explanations to these differences are linked to unequal gendered relations in the household and labour market and urban structures as well as gender socialisation. This means that men and women make different uses of a shared system of transport.
Given the serious environmental impacts of mobility patterns in wealthy nations, not the least in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, it is crucial to study mobility in the combined normative perspectives of gender mainstreaming and environmental sustainability. From a sustainability perspective, a question of high importance is whether accessibility to the activities in which we need or wish to participate is obtained through spatial proximity or through increased mobility. It is also of high importance to environmental sustainability whether gender mainstreaming within transportation is obtained through women's adaptation of traditionally male mobility practices or through an adaptation among men of traditionally female mobility practices.
Gender is a central stratifying factor in transport use. While age has been a theme in the literature, there is little knowledge about how gender interacts with other stratifying factors such as ethnicity, handicap, geographical location, class and sexuality. In relation to the EU aim of equality covering gender, as well as ethnicity, sexuality, age and handicap, it is necessary to develop understandings that combine these different structuring factors, as well as address the consequences of changing gender relations for transport uses.
At political as well as on research level, transport is an overwhelmingly male-dominated sector. At EU level, political committees in the transport sector as well as transport research and advisory councils have a low female representation. This also goes for transport-related committees at national level, with a notable exception. Sweden has a 50-50 balance in the transport committee.
The most recent employment data from the EU shows that transport continues to be male-dominated. The research literature suggests that the transport sector is a gendered workspace dominated by masculine values and practices. There is a need for organisations to decouple the requirements of the job from sex stereotypes about jobholders. Further, inclusive work environments need to be created to support the employment of more women in the sector.
There is a need for more data and analysis concerning the gendering of the transport sector at a structural level. Both in terms of basic knowledge drawing gendered representation and employment, but also about organisational processes and cultures and the ways in which the sector continues to be male-dominated. If the transport sector is to be competitive in a context of labour shortage, this is urgent.
In general, the transport sector is a gendered work space. In surface and water transport, female workers make up less than 20% of the workforce. Research suggests that the sector is dominated by masculine values and practices making it difficult for women to enter these fields.
Current gender mainstreaming initiatives in the transport sector relate to a wide range of issues: they relate to planning and policy, safety issues, gendering of technology as well as employment. The report substantiates that the implementation of equality programmes, and not their formulation makes up the biggest challenge.
Traffic planners and policymakers need to take into account gender from a user perspective and to integrate women's values, needs and interests in transport policy, as well as incorporate the voices of women users in planning.
See more on the official website, found at http://www.sociology.ku.dk/koordinationen/transgen/ online.
