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Gender mainstreaming for inclusive mobility

Women with bus

Mobility and transport are not gender-neutral. The persistent inequalities in both the labour market and household responsibilities also impact gender differences in mobility, particularly in travel patterns. According to Point&’s Report Data & Diversity in mobility, women have more complex and multimodal trip patterns, more safety concerns during travelling and use more public transport than men. However, women represent just 22% of the workforce in the EU transport sector.

This disparity, as well as the European Commission’s commitment to advance gender equality in innovation and technology, call for action in gender mainstreaming urban mobility.

Addressing bias through gender mainstreaming for equality

In 1997, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) defined gender mainstreaming as the strategic process of achieving gender equality by evaluating the implications that any planned legislation, policy or programme, in all areas and at all levels, might have for women and for men. However, this does not imply the prioritisation of one gender over the other or the exclusion of other groups, such as elderly people or children.

When the gender perspective is not explicitly integrated into the process of planning transport systems, outcomes often unintentionally favour men. This occurs due to unconscious biases that replicate existing structures, such as prioritising commuter routes traditionally used by men over local routes more frequently utilised by women. Explicitly addressing gender-specific issues and including more perspectives during the planning process increases the likelihood of achieving gender-equal results.

Roots and impacts of unconscious bias in the ITS sector

Research conducted within the Women in Nordic Intelligent Transport Systems (WIN-ITS), run by EIT Urban Mobility, Trivector Traffic and Nordic and Baltic ITS organisations, explores the roots and the impacts of these unconscious biases within the sector:

  • The biggest challenge: Not enough women are applying for jobs in the ITS sector. Furthermore, men still dominate innovation in the sector. Educational initiatives could promote and support women, for example through mentoring programmes.
  • Norms are important: Rationality, cost-saving and numbers dominate existing transport-planning norms, which need to be challenged to create a more inclusive transport system. Current cost-benefit assessments of transport measures often fail to account for the societal value of inclusive mobility.
  • Representation does not ensure equality: Since women and men are educated in gendered norms and ways of working, representation does not necessarily ensure gender equality. But rather, we must rethink the norms that we have internalised in order to ensure more equitable systems.
  • The leaky pipeline: Too many women “leak” out from the career pipeline in the ITS sector. Efforts to support women at critical points in their career could help keep them in the sector.
  • Collect and analyse data: Only with more gender-related data can the gender gap be properly analysed and addressed.
  • New thoughts about modelling: Traffic models and cost-benefit analyses focus on numbers and vehicles. Incorporating aspects such as health could help create a fairer transport system.

Promoting gender mainstreaming in the industry

EIT Urban Mobility has adopted its own Gender Mainstreaming Policy, which focuses on creating an inclusive working environment within the organisation, and integrates gender perspectives into the way planning, designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of programmes occurs, to enhance innovation and research quality.

The internal gender-mainstreaming efforts of EIT Urban Mobility include awareness training, gender-balanced startup investment panels, gender equality in staff and leadership roles, gender-related data collection and a gender-equality coordination group. As of September 2024, women made up 60% of the workforce at EIT Urban Mobility.

EIT Urban Mobility also tries to influence and foster diversity within the mobility industry to help close the gender gap. To this end, the EIT Community project SUPERNOVAS aims to get more women into entrepreneurship by promoting women-led startups and increasing female participation in early-stage funding, while the Women in Tech Breakfasts provide an ideal meeting space for female entrepreneurs to connect and exchange ideas. Moreover, women led 41% of the startups that EIT Urban Mobility has invested in as of 2024.

Another unique initiative of EIT Urban Mobility is the Better Mobility Accelerator. To promote inclusive, sustainable mobility for all, this six-month programme provides startups with coaching, networking and testing that enables them to improve accessibility, safety and affordability for underserved travellers.

Fostering gender mainstreaming for inclusive cities

Addressing the gender gap is also an essential challenge for cities. To support this, EIT Urban Mobility’s Manifesto for competitive and sustainable urban mobility across Europe stresses that sustainable urban mobility “does not leave people and companies behind, by providing equitable access to mobility services for all.” Promoting sustainable mobility requires tackling issues of availability, affordability, and accessibility of transport modes. It also involves addressing the diverse mobility needs and safety concerns of all users.

To enable individuals to educate themselves on the need for more gender-neutral mobility and inclusive cities, Urban Mobility Explained (UMX), a project co-funded by EIT Urban Mobility, offers self-learning courses and educational YouTube videos such as the “Insights into gender-specific differences in urban transport” e-course and the “How to make urban cycling more attractive to women?” video.

While raising awareness is essential, practical implementation of gender mainstreaming is equally important. TandEM Women in Cycling, a train-the-trainer programme developed by EIT Urban Mobility and BYCS, provides a platform for women cyclists to encourage other women to take up cycling. The programme enables women to network and advocate for cycling as a tool for better health, personal freedom, and safe and inclusive communities.

Integrating different perspectives, addressing unconscious bias and supporting women in transport innovation and leadership positions are the first steps towards creating an inclusive mobility industry. If you want to know more, sign up for the EIT Urban Mobility newsletter on our website.