Gender Equality, the Pandemic and a
Transport Rethink
8 March 2021
Covid-19 disproportionately affects women worldwide. Pre-existing inequality and thefact that the majority of healthcare and other essential workers are women underpins
this significant imbalance. Women face a higher burden of unpaid care and housework
than men, as well as gender-based violence. Women’s travel patterns exacerbate
gender inequality because of greater reliance on public transport than on private carsin many regions. In addition, women transport workers face a higher risk ofCoronavirus infection because of workforce gender inequality and a lack of adequate
measures to support women. Crisis responses allow a rethink of transport policies toimprove gender equality. This will not only reduce the unequal impact of the pandemic
on women; the long-term recovery towards more sustainable, resilient and inclusivetransport will depend on measures that address the priorities of both women and men.

Why the pandemic forces us to rethink transport
for equality
The pandemic highlights the existing gender inequality in transport. Women have been
affected disproportionately both economically and socially because of Covid-19. Women
make up the majority of essential workers, including healthcare workers, and are subject
to more unpaid care and housework work and experience higher levels of gender-based
violence, which has increased during the pandemic.

Takeaways from this Brief
The pandemic offers an opportunity to improve genderequality by rethinking transport design and policies toaddress the needs of women transport users and workers.
Policy responses should reduce the disproportionate risks
faced by women transport users and workers by improving
safety and security in transport services and the workplace.
Greater women’s participation in decision-making roles isessential to improving gender equality.
Government policies and employer initiatives must protect
women transport workers against Coronavirus as well as
addressing their caring responsibilities, violence at work,commuting, and social protections including for informal
workers.
Adopt International Labour Organization (ILO)
recommendations for workplace gender equality in crisis
response policies.

Women are more prone to the risk of
Covid-19 infection due to their travel
patterns and possible lack of transport
options. A higher share of unpaid care
responsibilities also makes working
remotely more difficult.
Existing measures for women transport
workers are inadequate to mitigate theirrisks in both passenger transport andfreight transport, especially when gendersegregation in the transport workforce
leads to different levels of exposure to
Covid-19 for women and men.
Without a change in transport measures
and without addressing the priorities ofwomen and men, the sector will be unable
to recover to achieve the goal of a moresustainable, resilient and inclusive future.

Covid-19’s impact is not gender-neutral
As with other crises like natural disasters,1 the impact of Covid-19 is not gender-neutral. Women
experience greater economic and social impacts than men due to existing gender gaps, especiallyin industries where teleworking is not an option, and the unequal unpaid care and domestic workburden on women. Around the world, women spent between two and ten times more hours on
unpaid care work than men pre-Covid-19.2
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased this burden on women due to reduced care supply.3 A higher
proportion of women work in essential services. Women account for 70% of the world’s health andsocial care workforce yet hold lower-status and lower-paid jobs in the healthcare sector, where
women earn on average 28% less than men.4 In addition, women are overrepresented in industries
hardest hit, such as food, retail and entertainment, where the pandemic has left them without jobs
or income.5 Globally, 58% of employed women also work in informal employment: a sector where
workers lost an average of 60% of their income at the beginning of the pandemic.6
These trends significantly heighten gender inequality in transport during the pandemic because ofexisting differences in travel behaviour by gender. Women travel shorter distances, chain more trips
throughout the day, make more non-work-related trips, travel at off-peak hours, choose more
flexible modes, make less car and two-wheeler trips, and tend to use more public transport andnon-motorised modes.7

Women also spend on average 42% of their weekly total commuting time on the “mobility ofcare”, such as trips related to housework and caregiving. 8 In addition, women caregivers, bothpaid and unpaid, have a more substantial dependence on public transport and fewer transportmode choices. The impact of Covid-19 on travel behaviour has been significant on public
transport ridership globally. The decline in public transport use around the world, reduced
services, suspended routes, and varying duration and restrictions have led to changes in the
supply of services. Some cities recorded a more than 90% decrease in public transport use; 9others saw public transport users switching from monthly to single tickets. 10 As more women
depend on public transport to access jobs and services, including childcare, education andhealth facilities, limited public transport supply affects women more than men. Maintaining
accessibility for both women and men has been a key challenge during the pandemic
worldwide. One study from the Netherlands showed that women have fewer transport
alternatives and need more effort to reach their destination. 11 Another study using data from
Italy, Portugal and Spain showed that women’s mobility fell by 28% three weeks after the
introduction of lockdowns, while that of men declined by about 21%. 12 Limitations on women’s
mobility will restrict accessibility to critical services and direct involvement in prevention andtreatment of Covid-19, putting them in more disadvantaged positions.

Measures to improve gender equality
Various Covid-19 response measures around the world aim to promote gender equality during
the pandemic. Measures include changes in transport services, like the provision of priority or
free access to public transport for health and essential workers 13 and tailored transport
services for frontline workers in partnership with public entities and hospitals. 14 Private sectortransport services can also complement public transport, notably for healthcare staff andessential workers. Private transport operators, including ride-sharing services, MOIA, FreeNow,
Lyft, and Uber, have replaced bus services during off-peak hours or have offered night services
to reduce the strain on public transport systems. 15
Other initiatives include demand-driven services, vehicle rentals at cost price, offering different
mobility options or free transport. 16 Gender-specific transport measures include free accessfor pregnant women who need maternal health services during Covid-19 17 or digital access,for example mobile phone-based health services and smart travel applications, to avoid
walking long distances or having to use other transport modes to reach health care facilities.18
Travel restrictions on some streets have allowed safer travel for cyclists and pedestrians. An
increase in bike lanes and free repair stations, and measures to respace cities 19 will increasetransport safety for all.

In the short term, these changes can address the disruption in public transport. In the long run,they could help women by allowing more efficient trip chaining. An increase in women cyclists
is an opportunity to increase the uptake of more sustainable transport modes. Ultimately, this
could be more beneficial for women who do not have access to private vehicles and will also
have overall health benefits.

Health and safety are paramountThe concern for both the health and safety of transport passengers and workers has been a toppriority since the beginning of the pandemic. Transport operators took measures to ensure abalance between workers’ safety and maintaining services so that transport networks could
continue to operate in extended periods of lockdown. This is vital for women who constitute morethan half of public transport users in many cities.
In order to ensure the safety of public transport users, many transport agencies around the world
have adopted a set of social distancing and sanitation measures, including spaced seating, open
windows, frequent cleaning and disinfection, mandatory mask-wearing, crowd monitoring,thermal screening, supervised boarding and deboarding, signage and other visual cues.20
Contactless payment through digital or electronic platforms also helps ensure passenger safety. At
the same time, there also needs to be enforced protocols to avoid violence against women,
especially given that over 80% of women already felt unsafe in public spaces pre-Covid-19.21
In urban areas, public transport and associated public spaces need measures to reduce harassment
against women. In 2017, the French Île-de-France Region found that 39% of all violence against
women happened in public spaces, like train stations.22 With governmental measures to containthe pandemic, the decrease of commuters could heighten safety concerns for women in public
transport: stringent social distancing measures may make women even more vulnerable targets
for violence and assault.23 Some governments have identified that the problem of violence against
women has worsened with social distancing measures and they have responded accordingly.
Cumbria in the UK implemented an initiative to reduce the negative impact of Covid-19 on women.
The police department joined forces with postal and delivery workers to identify and report signsof violence against women, reinforcing the work done online through the “Bright Sky” mobile app,which helps victims of abuse.
The government of New South Wales in Australia introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI) initially toincrease women’s security on public transport at night-time. They subsequently found that thetechnology could also be an effective security tool during the pandemic. The winning project of the“Safety After Dark” innovation challenge uses AI in security cameras to identify suspicious
behaviour. Providing these types of resources in the fight against gender-based violence remains
a decisive action to achieve gender equality during and post Covid-19.

Gender equality in the transport workforce
The pandemic has reinforced the existing challenges for women in the transport workforce
and could have significant and long-term implications for gender equality in transport.
Although the pandemic has a severe impact on all workers, there have been specific andadditional adverse effects on women. This is primarily because women aredisproportionately affected by inadequate policy designs, which place them at increased
health and occupational risks in the transport sector. For example, the risks to men
workers are better known given that occupational safety and health considerations had
previously focused on jobs in sectors dominated by male workers.
However, given the increasing participation of women in the workforce, gender-related
questions about the different effects of work-related risks on men and women, in termsof exposure to hazardous substances, or the impact of biological agents on reproductive
health, the physical demands of heavy work, the ergonomic design of workplaces and thelength of the working day, especially when domestic duties also have to be taken into
account, would all need to be addressed. 24 This is especially critical as occupational safety
and health (OSH) hazards affecting women workers have been traditionally
underestimated because OSH standards and exposure limits to hazardous substances are
based on male populations and laboratory tests. 25 In fact, work-related risks to women’ssafety and health have been underestimated and neglected compared to men’s, bothregarding research and prevention. 26
In 2018, women workers only represented 17% of the global transport workforce. 27 Where
women do participate in the transport workforce, relatively few rise to managerial
positions, a phenomenon that is shared by most sectors. In global supply chains andlogistics, women occupy less than 20% of top executive positions across all sectors. 28 It isalso more common for women to have less job security and lower-paid jobs than men 29
across the transport sector. The historically low representation of women in the transport
sector creates gender-biased attitudes and barriers, as well as discriminating work
environments and conditions. 30
These reasons have all led to a gender-segregated transport sector, where more women
are working in the frontlines of the pandemic and in customer-facing and cleaning roles,
which expose them to a higher risk of infection. This increased exposure, combined witha lack of adequate and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and the fact thatwomen also make up the majority of informal workers and workers in non-standard formsof employment, mean that women transport workers can disproportionately suffer thenegative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. A study in Canada found that more
women than men left the workforce due to Covid-19. 31

In response to the pandemic, the International Labour Organization (ILO) recommends
including a gender perspective in all crisis responses, gender-inclusive social dialogue,
and gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls for enabling recovery. 32
The specific recommendations follow. These provide a framework for recovery measuresby countries choosing their pathways towards greater transport sustainability andinclusivity.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Ensure that women are on all decision-making bodies.
Provide adequate income and social protection, including paid leave.
Provide access to sanitation and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Ensure access to secure work, as women are more vulnerable to layoffs and lossof earnings without any form of income protection.
5. Consider facilitating the transition of workers from the informal to the formal
economy in line with ILO Recommendation 204, potentially facilitating access toincome protections, healthcare benefits and leave.
6. Put care before profit.
7. End violence and harassment against women, particularly in the context ofincreased violence against women during the pandemic.
8. Ensure that new technology benefits rather than negatively impacts women
workers.
9. Obtain gender-disaggregated data to ensure that policies, strategies andmeasures are evidence-based and meet the needs of women transport workers.
10. Provide gender-responsive economic stimulus packages.

A more sustainable and inclusive transport future
The pandemic offers an opportunity to shift to transport that is more inclusive andimprove gender equality for both users and workers. Without changes in existingtransport measures and without addressing the priorities of both women and men, thesector will not be able to recover nor will it achieve a more sustainable, resilient andinclusive future. Hence, Covid-19 policy responses must include women’s priorities andreduce the risk to women transport users, including on public transport, ride sharing andtaxi use. This means improving the safety and security of transport through infrastructure
and operational improvements, public awareness campaigns, well-trained transport
employees, and better reporting systems, combined with a zero-tolerance approach toharassment.

Covid-19 has redefined public transport in many parts of the world and as new resources
are available to support public transport, it is critical to also reassess services that willmeet the travel patterns of both women and men. Different transport services may also
emerge from the pandemic through the adaptation of existing public transport services
or the launching of new services that meet the changes in transport demand.
Covid-19 recovery guidelines need to include a gender equality aspect both for womenas transport users and as workers. This is especially important due to the correlation
between gender equality and economic recovery, as women represent an untapped poolof labour. More data are required to better understand the full and differential impactsof Covid-19 and how they affect transport behaviour by gender in order to design more
equitable policies and efficient mobility. Understanding travel patterns and behaviour
trends by gender can help in designing and implementing more equitable policies andefficient mobility.
Similarly, addressing the structural barriers to women’s employment in the transport
sector will improve the sector’s ability to hire and retain women, and to support
economic recovery. Awareness campaigns can help attract more women to the sector in
the short term, but education and training are of critical importance to overcome thechallenges faced by women in the transport workforce. 33 Governments should continue
to invest in these areas, ensuring that job requirements and training become more
flexible and digital to allow workers to spend less time away from home or in remoteareas, thereby increasing their attractiveness for women. More women being involved in
relevant decision-making processes will also improve and ensure gender equality,
especially during crises.

Notes
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Dugarove, E. (2020), Unpaid care work in times of the COVID-19 crisis: Gendered impacts, emerging
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Boniol, M. et al. (2019), Gender Equity in the Health Workforce: Analysis of 104 Countries, Health
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https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/9/feature-covid-19-economic-impacts-on-women.
Ng, WS and A. Acker (2018), “Understanding Urban Travel Behaviour by Gender for Efficient and Equitable
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33

UNFPA (2020), Free Transport Helps Pregnant Women in Madagascar Safely Deliver Amid COVID-19
Lockdown, United Nations Population Fund, https://www.unfpa.org/news/free-transport-helps-pregnantwomen-madagascar-safely-deliver-amid-covid-19-lockdown.
Nyati-Jokomo, Z. et al. (2020), RoadMApp: A feasibility study for a smart travel application to improvematernal health delivery in a low resource setting in Zimbabwe, BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 20: 501,
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-020-03200-7.
ITF (2020), Re-spacing Our Cities for Resilience, Covid-19 Transport Brief, OECD Publishing, Paris,
www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/respacing-cities-resilience-covid-19.pdf.
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literature review of research needs and directions, Transport Reviews,
https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2020.1857886.
ITF (2018), Women’s Safety and Security: A Public Transport Priority, OECD Publishing, Paris,
www.itf-oecd.org/womens-safety-security.
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