One of the most significant trends of the past three decades has been the rapid entry of women into the paid labor force. Women's growing labor force participation has affected all aspects of social and economic life, but especially transportation-the "glue" that connects women's economic and domestic spaces. This raises important questions about transportation policies: What are the transportation needs of working women and how can public transportation systems be designed to facilitate women's work trips? Addressing these issues requires a detailed understanding of women's access to and use of various transportation options. Research shows that women's transit decisions are strongly influenced by gender relations at home and in the workplace 1, 2 . Yet, class, racial and ethnic divisions overlay gender differences, creating complex, interlocking webs of difference. How do these differences influence transportation access and use?This research examines the reliance on various transportation modes for women of different race and ethnicity. While the vast majority of working women in the U.S. commute by car, a significant fraction rely on other transportation modes, particularly in metropolitan areas. Using 1990 PUMS data for the New York metropolitan region, we analyze how the mode of transportation used in travelling to work varies by gender, race, residential location, and direction of commuting trip. We also estimate the impacts of economic status, household responsibilities, and access to automobiles on mode decisions for African-American, Latina, and white women. The results, which indicate that differences among women in transit mode are at least as large as the well-known differences between men and women, emphasize the diversity of women's transportation needs.The research focuses on the New York metropolitan region, an area with a diverse population and an extensive, well-developed mass transit network. New York is an atypical American city: Its size, population density, and high rates of mass transit use set it apart from the auto-dependent cities that exist in most of the United States. Therefore the findings of this research may not be generalizable to all metropolitan contexts. Despite this limitation, the research illuminates the range of planning and policy issues that arise when mass transit is available in an ethnically, racially and economically diverse American city. As governments take steps to reduce reliance on the automobile and improve mass transit, such knowledge provides an important base for designing policies that are sensitive to women's diverse transit needs.This study extends our previous research in several ways. In earlier work, we uncovered significant gender and race differences in commuting time, indicating that many African-American and Latina women do not work closer to home than their male counterparts 3 . Transportation is the single most important factor accounting for these differences, though other economic and domestic factors are also significant 4, 5 . This paper exte...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.