In celebration of International Women’s Day, the TRB Standing Committee on Women and Gender in Transportation (AME20) partnered with WTS
to share research from the poster sessions of the TRB 2021 Annual Conference.
The theme of International Women’s Day 2021 was #chooseToChallenge, which highlights the importance of challenging biases and misconceptions in the interest of creating a more inclusive and gender-equal world.
The Gender Dimension of the Transport Workforce-presented by Wei-Shiuen Ng, International Transport Forum- Women remain underrepresented in most transport-related industries, with only 17 percent female workers on average across a sample of 46 countries. Both attracting and retaining them remains a challenge for governments and the private sector. Results from a panel regression analysis show that across several variable there is a significant and positive correlation with women's participation in the transport workforce as a whole but discrepancies appear in different job divisions within the transport sector. The cross-cutting nature of gender equality requires multi-ministry and multi-stakeholder engagement, including the inclusive development of gender equality policies in both the public and private sectors. Specific policy measures pertaining to women's education and training, hiring and retaining of female employees and the alignment of international standards and national laws are critical in achieving greater gender equality in the transport workforce.
‘If You Can’t Write Diversity into Future Transport, Then What’s the Point? You Don't Create New Worlds to Give Them All the Same Limits of the Old Ones’- Presented by Andree Woodcock, Coventry University, Miriam Pirra, Politecnico di Torino, Katarzyna Gut, Coventry University, Stefan Roseanu, Integral Consulting R&D- The paper explores gender and diversity in transport research. To move forward, transport needs to create new road maps which acknowledge its social context. Despite recent initiatives to address gender gaps in STEM and support women in research, most research outputs and investigations are led by men. Taking a systems-oriented approach, using qualitative and desk-based research, the authors argue that gender and diversity bias in research is symptomatic of a wider malaise in the Transport Business Ecosystem (TBE). This not only affects women’s research footprints but, more importantly, the direction of transport research. Until this is addressed, women and those from ethnic backgrounds will not be able to lead or significantly influence transport research.