Gendered Experiences of Mobility

Abstract

This article examines the travel behavior of middle-class women in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh and one of the world's largest and most densely populated cities. In particular, we focus on women's use of non-motorized rickshaws to understand the constraints on mobility for women in Dhaka. Primary research, in the form of an empirical study that surveyed women in six neighborhoods of Dhaka, underpins our findings. Our quantitative and qualitative data presents a detailed picture of women's mobility through the city. We argue that although over 75 percent of women surveyed chose the rickshaw as their main vehicle for travel, they did so within a complex framework of limited transport options. Women's mobility patterns have been further complicated by government action to decrease congestion by banning rickshaws from major roads in the city. Our article highlights the constraints on mobility that middle-class women in Dhaka face including inadequate services, poorly maintained roads, adverse weather conditions, safety and security issues, and the difficulty of confronting traditional views of women in public arenas.

Fast Futures and Everyday Endurance: Mobility, Temporality, and Cycle‐Rickshaws in Dhaka

“…It is also important to emphasize that my observations and experiences in traffic inevitably explore Dhaka's congested roads from the privileged perspective of a passenger and do not capture the experience of what it means to quite literally put one's health and safety on the line to work a job that is both physically demanding and hazardous. In many ways, the cycle‐rickshaw serves as a poignant signifier of the hierarchies that exist between passengers and transport workers, as it signals the divide between middle‐class commuters (see Huq‐Hussain and Habiba, 2013) and the people whose bodies, effort, and work actually make such movements possible. This divide also continues to shape critical mobility studies, which tend to overlook the perspective of transport workers (Rekhviashvili and Sgibnev, 2018).…”