Women’s Travel in Developed and Developing Countries: Two Versions of the Same Story?

This paper compares women’s travel in the developed and the developing worlds in the context of four societal trends: globalization, urbanization, motorization, and sociodemographic transitions. The paper finds two versions of the same story: while women in the Global South suffer from far worse transportation problems, women around the world have less access to better transport modes and new technology; their travel patterns continue to differ from men’s, both because of their household and child-care roles and because of norms about women’s appropriate travel behavior; and they face greater fear and anxiety in traveling. These differences are largely ignored or even made worse by policy responses and government programs. Women’s travel needs and patterns can be given more traction in policy debates by encouraging researchers to recognize the underlying causes of differences in women’s travel behavior using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches, encouraging more women to enter transportation planning and research, and requiring policy makers to assess projects and policies in terms of their differential impacts on women and men both before and after implementation.