Women and transport in developing countries

Abstract

Transport is an essential element in women's lives. It determines access to a range of essential resources and activities such as employment, health care, education and child care. The purpose of this paper is to review what is known and to assess, in general terms, whether and how transport could contribute more positively to women's interests. The paper examines the roles of women in society and identifies the ways in which transport impinges on these roles. Quantitative evidence is presented on the way in which women use transport and some of the short‐comings of transport, in this respect, are identified. The question of whether women's role or potential in society is restricted by the state of transport cannot be answered by what little information is available, though there are strong grounds for believing that there is a link. What is clear is that most planning and development decisions are undertaken by men with little or no regard paid to women's needs. This is an area where there is a need for more basic data and case study material on how women make use of the transport system, the differential impacts of transport on women and what opportunities are denied to them when the system cannot meet their needs. In establishing that a problem exists (i.e. poverty of access to job opportunities) it also has to be established very clearly the extent to which transport causes or contributes to the problem as opposed to other factors like land‐use development or social and cultural practices. There is a need for a greater awareness throughout all aspects of transport—engineering and planning, urban and rural—of its development impact on the triple role of women in society. The inclusion of more comprehensive gender‐awareness into all fields of transport research can help to explore ways of correcting bias, and provide a sounder basis for policy advice.

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