Publication: Closing Gender Gaps in Transport
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2023-12-08
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2024-01-08
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Abstract
Transport services and infrastructure can be enablers or deterrents for women’s empowerment. Transport-related barriers, such as availability, affordability, acceptability, physical access, safety, and security, disproportionally impact women due to existing structural inequalities in terms of time use and household decision-making and task distribution based on gender roles and stereotypes. Lack of safe transport can translate into girls missing schools, women not looking for jobs far away from home, giving up their jobs, or being unable to access health or childcare services. Care responsibilities, less access to cars, and less disposable income all shape women’s transport choices and have the unintended result of them having a lower carbon footprint than men. At the same time, women often use public transport out of necessity, suggesting that primarily women are so-called captive transit users, and highlighting an environmental imperative for promoting gender equality in mobility to support sector decarbonization. This policy note provides a framework for incorporating gender responsive transport and mobility into the World Bank’s Gender Strategy 2024-2030. It offers policy makers several key takeaways based on existing evidence and promising World Bank practices that address gender in mobility.
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“Dominguez Gonzalez, Karla; Kurshitashvili, Nato; Gonzalez Carvajal, Karla; Pickup, Laurie. 2023. Closing Gender Gaps in Transport. World Bank Group Gender Thematic Policy Notes Series: Evidence and Practice Note. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/40850 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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