Balancing the Load: Women, Gender, and Transport

Transport policy makers and providers have paid almost no attention to gender equity, and gender researchers in development have seldom examined the crucial role of transport in women's lives. This text draws together local level research from 15 countries across Asia and Africa, to help understand how gender affects men and women's access to transport, and what steps can be taken at community, provider and policy levels to improve the situation. It describes the different forms of rural transport in diverse settings; the social roles transport plays; the uneven gender-influenced access to it; and the impacts which pverty, culture and gender-insentive transport provision have on women's lives. The contributors, and those who discussed their findings in a series of workshops, make practical proposals for tackling women's mobility poverty.