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ENERGIA News Issue 2.2, May 1998

News from the Editors

Women, Transport, Energy and the Environment

Guest Editorial Maria J. Figueroa

Economic development requires increased access and mobility of people and goods. Increasing urbanization and industrialization both create great demands for transport services. The goal of transport development is to improve every individual's access and mobility potential in society.

The transport, energy and environment dilemma

Increasing transport activity means increasing energy use. Transport remains highly dependent on fossil fuels - even as other energy consuming sectors, e.g., residential, commercial, industrial, are today less dependent on them, or even moving away from the use of hydrocarbons fuels towards renewable sources.

Local and global environmental concerns arise from the increasing use of energy in transportation. Local air pollution produced by motor vehicles affects people's health directly and has negative impacts on water and land resources. Traffic congestion, transport-related accidents and noise are among other negative local impacts.

Global concern is mounting over the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases that tend to warm the atmosphere. The transport sector is a source of a number of greenhouse gases, including principally, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone (O3). The share of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from the transportation sector is growing faster than that from any other sector. At present, GHGs from transport are not a serious concern for most developing countries, but the rapid pace of urbanization and the faster pace of motorization will change the situation in the future.

Outside of a scenario of the rapid distribution of the best performing technologies to developing countries, the conciliation between transport, economic growth and the environment will have to come through implementing integrated policies for sustainable transportation. Sustainable transportation calls for a holistic approach to policy and investment planning to achieve a balanced mix of transport modes and a sensible arrangement of land use that enables a conservative use of energy and capital to fulfil mobility needs.

Why is gender an issue in transport?

The built environment is often seen as a benign backdrop to the human drama rather than a force that shapes people's lives in profound ways. Yet transportation systems play a central role in creating environments that maintain and reinforce the existence of separate roles in society for women and men.

Transport policy-makers need to be informed of the specific accessibility and mobility needs of every individual in society. A gender perspective in transport analysis helps redefine the public from one amorphous blob of humanity with average needs, to publics with diverse experiences, concrete needs, and aspirations. There are several ways in which travel data with a gender perspective can contribute to a more holistic and comprehensive approach in transportation analysis for sustainable transport planning, by providing information on:

• How women use transport. Helping in understanding the extent to which the operation and development of transport systems in urban and rural areas provide opportunities or inhibit ways for women to acquire goods and services, participate in activities and improve their relative mobility.
• How a lack of transport and a lack of mobility of women in rural and urban poor areas has relevance to other areas of existence, in particular, for their ability to engage in income-earning activities that could better the living standards of the entire family.
• How transport systems, or lack of transport, affect the health and environment of women and offer new ideas as to how women can become part of more environmentally sustainable transport solutions.

Women's travel patterns

Transport provides critical links between our homes, jobs and social lives. Mobility and travel are essential in fulfilling every role we play. Women's roles vary between societies, classes and ethnic groups. Female travel patterns vary, depending on whether women live in urban or rural areas, the stage of economic development and whether they are economically active.

There are, however, many common role features that extend across both developed and developing societies. Even in societies where formal legal equality exists, men and women do very different work. Women are assumed responsible for childcare and the well-being of the household, including its health, education and housing. Managing a household includes the handling of sources of constraints (income, time), and crises (illness). Most importantly, routines and crises are coped with simultaneously. The management of travel is an integral part of the general household co-ordinating process.

Two distinct types of energy issues are raised in this ENERGIA News: First, human energy is an important source of transport in rural areas of developing countries, and women play a major role, as described in several articles. Secondly, fossil fuels - with their attendant environmental impacts - are used in transport in rural and urban areas in the South as well as throughout the North. A gender perspective is revealing here too.

A summary of findings on women's travel patterns shows that:

• Women make the vast majority of household trips for the purposes of shopping, taking children to school, doctors, dentist and childcare. In countries where the automobile is the dominant mode of transport for women's travel (e.g., the United States), concerns have been raised about women's potentially larger contribution to global emissions of greenhouse gases.
• Employed women make shorter work trips than men. Women contemplating employment alternatives consider the demands of household roles and other travel/employment arrangements as a strategy for family survival and as a way of securing and retaining employment.
• Car ownership in developing countries is very low. Even in car-owning households women have markedly inferior access to the transport resources commanded by the family.
• In developing country urban areas, the hardships of traveling by public transport in highly congested urban areas falls disproportionately on women responsible for the essential family business trips.
• Women spend more time than men on transport activities in developing country rural areas. People use human energy to transport materials in the absence of transport services (see article by Inge D. Brouwer in this issue). In many cultures, transporting basic survival elements like water, fuelwood, agricultural tools and products is considered women's work. More on this subject can be found in Paul Starkey and Priyanthi Fernando's article in this issue.

Sustainable Transport and Gender: What Matters?

The design of appropriate and equitable transport policies should proceed from an appreciation of how women and men actually use transport in order to fulfil their roles. Transport is one factor compounding other social opportunities for women. The flexibility inherent in the possession of an effective network of transport services is important to the scheduling activity of the individual household. For women in urban areas, combining domestic and paid employment, accessibility to services and a high level of mobility from home to work are crucial to retain their jobs and to handle critical situations at home. Women in remote rural areas could substantially reduce their transport burden through better accessibility to basic services. Women throughout the world are anxious to improve their situations, but they are sometimes limited by social and technological restraints.

An agenda for sustainable transport development that contributes positively to women's concerns and needs should include the provision of:

• Public transportation systems that are safe, cheap and efficient;
• Accessibility to rural transport services as part of other development interventions;
• A well-developed network of services connected to transport, from public toilets, to child-care facilities;
• Urban design with facilities for walking and segregated lanes for non-motorised transport modes, streets oriented towards pedestrians rather than cars;
• Policies and actions for a healthy environment; many issues in urban transport (air pollution, lead exposure, water and land pollution, etc) could be avoided;
• Personal safety: safety and personal security in the use of transport services

Additional ways in which women can contribute to sustainable transport objectives:

1. As a participating individual in society: Reinforcing social support and exchange of services between families to resolve travel needs. Becoming aware of the implications on health of energy use in transport, e.g. preventing children's exposure to car fumes and car residues at home, especially where leaded gasoline is used. Encouraging safe driving in our own families.
2. In our professions: Environmental concerns are leading to policies that are complementary to those proposed by women's advocates. The overlap is not complete, however, there are many academics, practitioners, and activists who share a similar commitment to environmental change. The objective of moving towards sustainable transport justifies the need for deeper enquiries and gender-awareness in transport research and planning.

A lot more work lies ahead.

Maria J. Figueroa, UNEP Collaborating Centre on Energy and Environment, Risø National Laboratory, P.O.Box 49, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark; Tel. +45.46.322288, Fax +45. 46. 321999, Email maria.figueroa@risoe.dk