Women’s Issues in Transportation: Summary of the 4th International Conference, Volume 2: Technical Papers (2011)

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236 Women and Men in Public Consultations of Road-Building Projects lena levin, VTI Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute Charlotta Faith-ell, WSP Civils, Stockholm, Sweden This paper discusses results of a research project designed to increase knowledge about women’s and men’s participation and their opportunities to take part in and influence the road planning process. The proj- ect was accomplished in an explorative case study, an advertisement study, and an implementation study that used questionnaires, observations, quantitative and qualitative analyses of conversations, content analysis of minutes, and advertisements. A basic principle of public participation argues that it should be inclusive and equitable to ensure that all interests and groups are respected. A literature study found that the subject of gender equality is basically nonexistent in the literature on environmental impact assessment. This project shows that about a quarter of participants at consultation meet- ings are women, but men talk longer and ask more ques- tions. Those who attend meetings are generally older and have more education than the average person. Men and women bring up environmental and road safety issues during meetings, but men more often discuss economy, technical facts, alternative routings, and landownership. Some participants had more experience taking part in public meetings and talking in front of other people. Par- ticipants with less experience seem to need more guid- ance and take a more active part in the meeting when a moderator leads the discussion. It is tempting to say that men are more experienced and women are less experi- enced, but that would be an oversimplification. The aim of increasing gender equality through an intervention study did not completely succeed. The basis for this paper is a research project aiming at increasing knowledge about women’s and men’s participation and their opportunities to take part in and influence—on equal terms—the road planning process. It draws background from gender mainstream- ing in the consultation process and, more precisely, in Swedish road planning, which connects to ideas about democratic values of public participation and the rigor of road planners’ dialogue with different groups on envi- ronmental issues (IAIA 2006). The project was based on empirical studies and was constructed in three parts. The first part consisted of an exploratory case study of con- sultations on road projects. Part two followed from the results of the first part and consisted of an analysis of the recruitment to the consultations—that is, newspaper advertising, which is the Swedish Road Administration’s principal way to invite participants for public consulta- tions. The third part, an intervention study, was designed from the first two parts with an emphasis on measure- ments to increase women’s participation. The explorative study showed that 26% were women at the consultation meetings and the intervention study showed that 32% were women. These and other results are discussed. The aim of the project was twofold: to increase knowledge about women’s and men’s participation and their opportunities to take part in and influence on equal terms and to intervene in the process and increase gen- der equality in the public consultation. The core ques- tions for this paper are: How do women and men take part in the consultation and how do they judge it? What questions are discussed by women and men? How do the experts answer questions from women and men—

237WoMeN AND MeN IN PuBlIC CoNSulTATIoNS oF RoAD-BuIlDING PRoJeCTS do they develop answers in the same way or do they discriminate in any specific way? What methods can be used to increase equal participation? Are other forms of consultation more appealing to women? Theoretical perspectives on gender equality and trans- portation planning follow the introduction. Then, two sections describe study design and results, and finally there is a discussion of strengths and limitations and a concluding section with implications for further studies. Gender eQualiTy and TransporTaTion planninG From previous research, it is known that men and women do not participate equally in public consultations.1 Pre- vious researchers have analyzed this inconsistency and pointed out historic asymmetries (Greed 1994; Scott 1988) and lack of political power on the female side of society (Burns et al. 2001). earlier research about partici- pation of women and men in public meetings has stated that their conversational styles differ; Maltz and Borker (1982) suggested that cultural factors could be an expla- nation. Research has shown that both women and men can experience barriers to participation because of power asymmetries (Kendall and Tannen 2001; Tannen 1993). Gender Mainstreaming In Sweden, equality in the transport sector is part of a broader policy, and gender mainstreaming should be incorporated in all political and public domains (Sou 2001; vagland 2004). The overall objective of ensuring socially and eco- nomically efficient and sustainable transport resources for the public and industry is guided by six subsidiary objectives for different areas. one of them considers how to design the transport system to meet men’s and wom- en’s transport needs and requirements. vagland stated: “Women and men shall have the same opportunities to influence the construction, design and management of the transport system, and their values shall be given equal weight” (vagland 2004, p. 3). The objectives are under- going development. It also appears that the transporta- tion sector has not grasped the full meaning of a gender 1 A well-known fact is also that women’s and men’s travel behaviors differ. However, women’s travel behavior has changed in the past three decades: they make more trips, travel more often as car driv- ers, and cover more miles than before (Rosenbloom 2004). There are also considerable differences in the travel patterns of subgroups of women, which are due to factors such as economic circumstances and age. older women still do not drive as often as older men, and they stop driving earlier; it is assumed that this picture will change when today’s younger and middle-aged cohorts grow old (Hjorthol et al. 2009). equality perspective. In general, the transport sector in europe (and in Sweden) is a gendered workspace domi- nated by masculine values (Christensen et al. 2007). The distribution of women in national governmental and municipal politics is rather high—often 40% to 50%. Women constitute 48% of the Swedish Parliament. Also, the proportion of women in employment is high: 81% of women 20 to 64 years old are employed (compared with 87% of men). However, Swedish women and men work in one of the most gendered labor markets in the world. For example, within the group of assistant nurses and nursery school teachers 90% to 100% are women and within the group of truck drivers and construction work- ers 0% to 10% are women. Women are paid less than men. In private companies, women are underrepresented in managerial positions (Statistics Sweden 2008). Among the basic principles of public participation, it is argued that public participation should be inclusive and equitable, ensuring that all interests and groups are respected (IAIA 2006). However, a literature study con- nected to this project found that gender equality basi- cally is nonexistent in the literature on environmental impact assessment (Yazar 2008). In transport planning, gender diversity has been nonexistent and thus planning is the story of man (Greed 1994). Greed (2006) sug- gested that, however legitimate they may appear from environmental and financial perspectives, road building and traffic measures should be scrutinized from a gen- der perspective. There is little point in increasing trans- port networks if potential travelers do not have access to them. It is not only public transport that is relevant in discussions about accessibility. Greed (2006) argued that accessibility is a complex factor related to travel experience; access and movements within the built envi- ronment are also restricted to spatial and psychological safety factors. From this position, gender equality is not just about physical representation that affects women’s and men’s positions (law 1999). Understanding Gender The intention of this paper is not to categorize gen- der theories and discuss interdisciplinary variations; instead, it follows a few steps on the theoretical map and introduces a perspective for understanding the current project. The study follows the ideas of a gender concep- tion that includes thoughts about male and female fac- tors in a societal context—that is, female versus male behavior does not have to be tied to biological factors but rather is concerned with social and sociopsychologi- cal aspects (Conell 2002). This study deals with a living, ongoing, and to some extent uncertain process, which means women and men cannot be placed in fixed catego- ries. Adding more women (or men) in the spheres with

238 WoMeN’S ISSueS IN TRANSPoRTATIoN, voluMe 2 unequal gender representations may increase equality but is not the only way to do so. There is no guarantee that having more women in transportation planning will result in a more equal and sustainable transportation sys- tem (Hjorthol 2003; Polk 1998). The research conducted so far is about “doing gender” (eveline and Bacchi 2005) in public participation and about the gender mainstreaming process (Christensen et al. 2007). This study goes beyond counting women and men, looks at the contexts and situations of road projects, and asks what is going on in the consultations. The study also uses the concept of gender consciousness (Friberg 2006) as a perspective in discussing the results. Gender consciousness means being aware of gender concepts in social life—for example, how the words “woman” and “man,” “female” and “male,” and “sex” and “gender” are used and how they influence common sense as well as scientific knowledge. Gender consciousness is also about how people adopt and understand concepts—for example, how gender equality is transformed into action. From a scientific viewpoint, it also means being aware of what is established scientific knowledge and what are more loosely formed ideas or norms about what some- body thinks should be the order of things. In transpor- tation planning, gender consciousness means adopting a critical approach to figures of travel patterns and the underrepresentation of women in planning. From Polk’s (2001) theoretical outlines it is found that gender is a much more complex source of power and symbolic rep- resentation than is acknowledged in the documents deal- ing with transportation policy in Sweden today. Public Participation and Gender Equality From the gender policy point of view, it is considered important to use democratic tools to involve women’s and men’s interests, and measures in the transportation system should be developed and implemented through a dialogue with the population. Societal change, particularly increased education among citizens, has been considered grounds for involve- ment and demand for access to information by the pub- lic. Citizen participation has been characterized as an inevitable outcome of a movement from elitist, isolated, and bureaucratic modes of governance to more open, transparent, and participatory approaches (Moynihan 2003). Democracy theorists, for example, propose that societal change, including distrust of formal institutions, and relations among individuals in liberal democracies make it more likely that citizens will involve themselves in public issues (Inglehart 1997; Putnam 1993). Historic analysis with a feminist approach has indi- cated that women’s adjustment of their time and space (to extend their control and resources for their home and children) has resulted in increased interaction between the home community and the public sphere, which also affects the urban environment and infrastructure. It has altered the nature of home community, has resulted in creation of new spaces and networks, and has produced different relations between private and public environments (Mac- kenzie 1988). For example, many of the activities of child- care are performed in qualitatively different ways with public recognition of parenting. The need to coordinate childcare, work, and leisure activities has also increased people’s travel needs. According to Mackenzie (1988), the implications of these changes for women’s and men’s impact on future urban environment and transportation systems depend on employment and domestic activities. Burns and colleagues (2001) used statistical methods to analyze women’s and men’s participation in political activities in the united States and found that choice of profession and workplace were important. Their analy- ses showed how different factors appear to influence an individual’s choice to participate in political assemblies. For both women and men, education influences who goes to work, what kind of jobs they have, and whether they develop civic skills that lead to political activity. However, those who are born to parents with limited educational attainment begin life with a participatory disadvantage. Burns and colleagues (2001) discussed the impact of dif- ferent institutions and found that parents’ education as an influence on children (to attain education) was an obvi- ous factor for entering a specific job category. Financial resources in the family also appear to affect whether one or both parents play an active role in politics. They also found that democratic projects in work groups and con- scientious activities at work reinforced the development of participatory skills, whereas domestic work did not foster political activity in the same noticeable way. Friberg (2006) pointed out a dilemma in the use of the terms “public” and “private,” as the lives of women are often linked to the private (domestic) spheres, and men’s lives are often linked to the public spheres (work and politics). The dilemma is that the terms private and public are often used in planning contexts to distinguish between privately owned land and land accessible to all inhabitants. There is a long tradition in which the pub- lic sphere (associated with men) is considered superior to the private sphere (associated with women), and thus the traditional order in planning contexts reconstructs patterns of women’s subordination. To break these pat- terns, planning must recognize everyday life as a starting point, including home and workplaces equally, the point of intersection in everyday life (Friberg 2006, p. 283). The perspective from Friberg (2006) will also make clear the heterogeneous groups of women and men. Women are not a homogeneous group with the same opportunities and disadvantages. Case studies in Great Britain (in leices ter, Sheffield, and Birmingham) identified, for example, that

239WoMeN AND MeN IN PuBlIC CoNSulTATIoNS oF RoAD-BuIlDING PRoJeCTS financial barriers and lack of accessible transportation hindered some women from participating in consultations (Booth 1996). Hence, expenses to allow all women to attend the meetings were included in the planning projects (e.g., taxis for women with disabilities). The case studies provided examples of consultations in contrasting insti- tutional, organizational, and political contexts. While the more traditional public consultation exercises in planning often have used reactive approaches, in which members of the public were asked to introduce their views of a pro- posal, this approach was nonhierarchical. Despite some differences in approach, the case studies have adopted sim- ilar participatory models of involvement and relied heav- ily on women officers, women consultants, and women themselves to act as facilitators. Also, education, training, and support were provided to build women’s confidence. Women were asked to set their own agendas. Booth (1996) concluded that these measures enabled women to partici- pate more effectively in the local consultation process and have given women more visibility in the planning process. Booth also pointed out that most initiatives were ad hoc and that more research is required. Gender and Interactional Resources This paper does not have space for a thorough analysis of women’s and men’s talk and interaction in consulta- tion meetings. Whereas the paper reports the essential results of the analysis, it also gives a short theoretical background. The cross-cultural miscommunication meta- phor applied to adult female–male interaction by Maltz and Borker (1982) and further research (Kendall and Tan- nen 2001; Tannen 1993) formed the basis for discussions on how different meeting forms fit women versus men in workplaces and consultations. later, critical voices by Cameron (2007) and Ford (2008) illuminated quite dif- ferent interpretations. As Ford stated: “current research on gender and language have developed a productive scepticism regarding the dichotomous conception of gen- der” (Ford 2008, p. 7). Documentation of differences and similarities in language practices in relation to activities has led to more complex and expanded understanding of variation than in those who referred to a social categori- zation of gender. For example, conversation analysts in earlier research interpreted women’s (over)use of ques- tions as a tendency to hesitancy and lack of authority. However, these forms of questioning were later reinter- preted and found to be a successful way to pursue top- ics more frequently. Rather than expressing hesitancy or insecurity, questions were used as vehicles to strengthen the force of their turn and put their topic on the agenda (Ford 2008). Also, narrative research within social sci- ence has developed useful tools to understand the power of individuals and groups of individuals (also institutions such as workplaces, family, and mass media can be ana- lyzed with a narrative approach). Narrative in this study means accounts, storytelling, and talking in the interac- tion of one person with one or more others. Narratives can be expressed by one individual or by individuals toge- ther. Narratives linked to knowledge are intermediated through the continuity of identity and continuity of con- science in which people recognize themselves in time and society. Hence, it is fruitful to study narratives as a toolkit that people strategically use not merely to explain the past and present but also to transform it into a reliable source for the future (Misztal 2003; Riessman 1993). Gender in Research and Practice Pointing out the representation perspective is risky: the more likely that women and men are represented in the same numbers, the better is the situation for equality mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming is risky because women tend to be “the other” sex, the group involved in and taking responsibility for solving the inequal- ity problem. emphasis tends to be on women instead of on the process for which men and women should be equally responsible. Gender mainstreaming is also risky for research outcomes because it misses the theoretical perspectives, the complexity of people’s interactions, and contextual understanding of the subjects. From Burns and colleagues (2001), Friberg (2006), and West and Fenstermaker (1995), an intersectional approach is identified, which means women and men are heterogeneous groups divided along multiple axes of social cleavages and different ethnicity, class, genera- tion, religion, and ideology. Instead of asking whether and how women and men differ, it is necessary to distin- guish how gender differences vary according to domains and contextual processes. There is no evidence that one can generalize from activities in workplaces, classrooms, board rooms, and living rooms to committee meetings and consultations in transportation planning. Hence, understandings of gender in various domains need sys- tematic, empirically grounded research. The theoretical framework described in this section serves as a tool for interpreting the empirical findings described in the next sections. sTudy desiGn The project took its starting point in investigating the representation of women and men in consultations and with in-depth case studies from consultation meetings. The procedure followed three stages (Figure 1). During the research process, the findings were evaluated before the next stage was created.

240 WoMeN’S ISSueS IN TRANSPoRTATIoN, voluMe 2 Explorative study Advertisement study Intervention study 8 meetings (8 cases) 32 adverts 8 meetings (8 cases) Data collection Data collection Data collection • Questionnaires • Newspaper advertisements— • Questionnaires • Participant observations 53 advertisements from 6 • Participant observations • Tape recordings from regions, 32 were appropriate • Memos from project managers of the meetings for the project aim road projects • The Swedish Road Administration’s • The Swedish Road Administration’s minutes minutes • Qualitative interviews Data analyses Data analyses Data analyses • Statistical analysis of questionnaires • Content analysis • Statistical analysis of questionnaires • Counting of question and answer • Content analysis of minutes time from the tape recordings • Content analysis of project managers’ • Narrative analysis from tape memos recordings and participant • Analysis of researchers’ memos observations • Transcriptions and analysis of interviews • Analysis of researchers’ memos • Content analysis of minutes No single research method is immune to presupposi- tions such as researchers taking for granted ways of see- ing, interpreting, categorizing, coding, and representing findings (Goodwin 1994). This project used methodologic triangulation to ensure the results were not one-sided and to reduce biases from general assumptions. The research team worked with an interdisciplinary approach and the methods for data collection included questionnaires with participants at the consultation meetings, researchers’ field notes from participant observations, tape record- ings of conversations at meetings, the Swedish Road Administration’s advertisements and minutes from the meetings, memos, and complementary interviews with project managers for the road projects. The project team consisted of six researchers from two research institutes, with connections to the universi- ties in linköping and Stockholm. The researchers also worked together with students from advanced courses in public health and cultural studies. Processing and analyses of data consisted of statisti- cal analyses of questionnaires, content analyses of field notes and minutes from the meetings, counting of time for questions and answers, narrative analyses of tape- recorded meeting conversations, transcriptions, and the- matic content analysis of interviews (Faith-ell and levin 2008a, 2008b; Faith-ell et al. 2009). All personal information such as names of individu- als was omitted or changed in presentations and reports. Participants were asked for permission to tape record the meetings. The tape recordings are solely for the research team’s use and detailed transcriptions with sensitive information will not be published. The next section describes the results and how the three studies were connected to each other. resulTs The project started with the explorative study. After that, recruitments to the meetings were analyzed further, and it was found that invitations to the meetings always con- sisted of adverts for newspaper publishing and publish- ing on the Swedish Road Administration’s homepage. The advertisements followed a fixed form. An interven- tion study could be designed from the outcomes of the other study phases of the project. The Meetings The explorative study and the intervention study were based on eight cases each, for a total of 16 cases. one case consisted of one consultant meeting. The following meetings were studied in the explor- ative study: • Classic information meeting, • Open house meeting, • Dialogue meeting, and • Landowners’ meeting. The dominating meeting form is the classic informa- tion meeting, in which road planning experts lecture on the project followed by a question-and-answer session. FIGURE 1 Outline of project.

241WoMeN AND MeN IN PuBlIC CoNSulTATIoNS oF RoAD-BuIlDING PRoJeCTS The meeting is typically held in a meeting room or a school room. These meetings usually take 2 to 3 h, from 6 or 7 p.m. until 9 or 10 p.m. It is also common to have a coffee break in the middle of the meeting. The next typical form is the open house, which is a much more freely formed meeting, in which the experts assemble and discuss with participants in small groups or give shorter informative lectures. often there are maps and poster boards with images and written information. Dialogue meetings are rare. They are characterized by small groups with individuals representing various groups such as associations and professionals (school teachers, social workers, administrators) from the local area. landowners’ meetings are typically held at the end of a planning process, and personal invitations are sent to landowners in the area. The meeting form resembles the classic information meeting. Sometimes the meetings are combined with excursions. The case studies should be representative of the con- sultations. From 30 meetings held in four road admin- istration’s regions, eight meetings were chosen for the explorative study. Five classic meetings, two landown- ers’ meetings, and one combination of dialogue and open house meeting were studied. It was decided to include narrative analysis of the talk at the consultation meetings in a part of the explorative study. More women than men attended the open house meet- ings, especially one meeting with a walking tour to the section where the new road was supposed to be located. Consequently, in the intervention study it was decided to give priority to open house meetings and walking tours (excursions). However, it was found that specific forms of consultation meetings were decided early in the plan- ning process before the intervention study began. This was also an organizational issue, and it was difficult to change perspective from the organizational strategies. For example, it would have been interesting if some project managers had followed suggestions and arranged a walking tour along the road section. Instead, the meeting included a bus tour. The bus was hired by the regional road administration and drove along one part of the road that was being rebuilt. It stopped four times to pick up interested citizens, and at the 30- to 50-min stop at each place, the project manager and experts held lectures and answered questions. The other meetings studied in the intervention study were two open houses, four classic information meetings, and one landowners’ meeting. The eight meetings for the intervention study were chosen in consultation with the road administration. From a record with 35 meet- ings, meetings were chosen that could be involved in the timetable. The project managers were encouraged to reshape the advertisements and the meetings. For organizational reasons, it was not possible to take part in the early planning, and thus the intention to change meeting forms worked only to an extent. Advertisement Analysis The project team tried to change the conditions, and recruitment was considered to be a crucial aspect for participation. All available advertisements before con- sultations, which were published in 2007 and 2008 within six road administration regions, were collected. of 53 advertisements, 32 were deemed appropriate for the project and were analyzed (21 advertisements, invita- tions for exhibition, were left out). Analysis of the advertisements revealed four forms: the technical advertisement, the practical advertise- ment, the encouraging advertisement, and the dialogical advertisement. The dialogical advertisement was judged to be the best, as it asked questions and had an open welcoming approach. For example: Do you want to dis- cuss Road 282? Are you going by bus from Nyköping to eskilstuna? It also often had illustrations. This advertise- ment was also the least used by the road administration. The most common advertisement was the technical one, followed by the practical. The research team started the intervention study with the advertisement design and altered the old-fashioned technical advertisements to more contemporary dialogical ones. The Participants The number of adult participants was 305 in the explor- ative study and 426 in the intervention study. The figures from the explorative study showed that about a quarter of participants in the meetings were women (26%). In the intervention study, women represented a few more percent (32%) (Table 1). The number of women and men varied between the meetings; in the explorative study women’s participation varied from 60% to 0%, and in the intervention study it varied from 42% to 26%. The people who attended meetings in the explorative study were generally older and had a higher level of edu- cation than the average population. Participants in the intervention study were also older than the average but held the same educational level as the majority of the TABLE 1 Total Number of Women and Men at the Meetings in the Studies Women Men Number Percent Number Percent explorative study 80 26 225 73 Intervention study 138 32 288 68

242 WoMeN’S ISSueS IN TRANSPoRTATIoN, voluMe 2 Swedish population. A majority had no children under 18 years old (71% in the explorative study and 68% in the intervention study). In both studies, the participants had higher incomes than the average citizen. The major- ity also went to the meetings by car. In the intervention study, no one came to the meetings by bus. In the explorative study and the intervention study, most women came together with their partner (76% and 65%, respectively, of respondents), while men to a larger extent attended the meeting without their partner (69% and 62%, respectively). The respondents were also asked if they knew why their partner did not participate in the meeting. Most women not attending in the explor- ative study were at home with children or grandchildren (30%). In the intervention study, a large group of women were at work (25%). Not interested and busy with other things, are other common reasons for not attending (15% and 18%, respectively). In the explorative study, many women answered that their partner did not participate because he was not interested (28%). Issues Discussed environmental and road safety issues were brought up by both men and women during the meetings, but men more frequently discussed economy, technical facts, alternative routings, and landownership. Women more often asked questions about the consultation process and the opportunity to leave information after the meetings and on later stages of the planning process. From the minutes and the narrative analyses, a complex of the topics discussed was identified. Four thematic topic areas were identified from the minutes: the project and the planning process, environmental issues, road sections and alternative routings, and other aspects with no direct connections to the road projects. each thematic topic has subtopics identified in con- cepts. Some examples are as follows: how to interpret the maps (women and men asked); how the new and the old road can be used after rebuilding (women and men); cycling and walking (women and men asked and the questions often concerned children’s mobil- ity); noise (women and men); barriers (men, a few women, questioners were landowners); technical solu- tions about, for example, roundabouts, exit roads, and intersections (men and a few women); financing (men and a few women); timetable (women and men); local place (women and men); different needs for a new road (women and men); earlier investigations versus current planning process (women and men); how to get more information; and when and where is the next consulta- tion (women and a few men). The more detailed the analyses are, the more complex is the image of how women and men interact. Interaction The counting of questions and answers from the con- versational interactions showed that men talked longer and asked more questions. Women and some men talked more together with other participants and with the road experts at the meetings. From the narrative analysis, two types of storytelling were identified. In the first, one person is telling a story by himself (in this study, it was always men who practiced this form of narrating). The people using this form introduced themselves as represen- tatives of an association or a political organization. The second form is storytelling, with one person introducing a topic she or he evaluates together with other partici- pants or with the experts. In the first type, the storyteller often holds the floor alone for several minutes. The other type of storytelling also takes more than 1 min, but it is always elaborated in short turns of just a few seconds each. At one meeting, a moderator organized the discus- sions and then he was also a co-narrator taking part with short comments and answers to participants. Some participants had more extensive experience tak- ing part in public meetings and talking in front of other people. Participants with less experience seem to need more guidance and take a more active part in the meeting when a moderator leads the discussion. It is tempting to say that men are more experienced and women are less experienced, but that is an oversimplification (Ford 2008; Kendall and Tannen 2001; Tannen 1993). It was observed that women and men who asked questions and talked in short turns instead of talking alone in extensive and argu- mentative turns also elaborated their arguments and took another strategy in making their topics known. It was also found that the road experts did not discriminate as they answered questions from women and men. Both women and men received the same attention for their questions. The results show that not many more women attended the meetings in the intervention study. Comparable fig- ures were 26% women in the explorative study and 32% in the intervention study, which was not the expected result. At the same time, most women and men said they were satisfied with the information at the meetings in both studies, and women tended to be more satisfied than men. At the same time, in some meetings women were more active and asked more questions in comparison with their quantity at the meeting. A difference was recognized in the explorative study—for example, in a meeting with a walking tour in which 60% of attendees were women there was also more activity among the participating women. Also, in the intervention study, some meetings tended to increase women’s activity. open house meet- ings, meetings with excursions, and small group dis- cussions seemed to attract more people from different groups than the classic open information meetings.

243WoMeN AND MeN IN PuBlIC CoNSulTATIoNS oF RoAD-BuIlDING PRoJeCTS The questionnaires also asked for alternative con- sultations. Women said they would attend other meet- ing forms and some of them mentioned questionnaires, interviews, and study meetings. However, the attending women said they were more satisfied than the men with the information and the meetings, so it cannot be con- cluded that women need other meeting forms than men. From the questions about the advertisements, the majority of participants who came to the meetings con- sidered the advertisements interesting. Yet, many people were not informed by the advertisements and instead got information from neighbors and from newspaper articles. Women and men who attended the meetings seemed to be interested or curious about the road project before they came. A few were also well informed about the road administration and its activities. Younger per- sons (no differences between women and men) said they missed newspaper advertisements because they do not read daily newspapers regularly. discussion of findinGs The problem is not only a women’s issue. When women attend meetings they are often satisfied and as active as men. The problem is that so few women still take part in the public participation process and there are many silent participants at the public meetings, both women and men. In addition, the invitations are considered too narrow to reach all presumptive participants and the meeting time and form are not appropriate for all inhab- itants and road users who may be concerned. Another problem is the age of the participants; it is desirable to increase the participation of younger adults and youths without reducing the middle-aged people’s and pension- ers’ access to the meetings. Complexity of the planning process as well as the form of invitation to the meetings must be considered. Adver- tisements in local news papers should be completed with other recruitment methods. If new generations do not come to the Swedish Road Administration, other meth- ods should be considered; rearrange the meetings, search for other locations, and find specific occasions to meet the public, such as sport and concert assemblies, colleges, and workplaces. A challenge for gender research is that it runs the risk of becoming a circular and self-fulfilling process whereby presumptions taken for granted are already embedded in the research questions. Gender studies have shown a great deal of power asymmetries and inequality among women and men in general. However, not all areas are unequal in the same way and power relations do not play the same part for all women and all men. Thus, gender and transportation research needs empiri- cal evidence to compare with the findings from other fields. What is unique about transport planning and how does gender equality come into that? Is transport planning just mirroring the situation and state of the art in other areas? Should transport planning be interpreted as an interactive area constructing and reconstructing gender inequality, or can it be interpreted apart from society in other respects? From the current project about consultations within Swed- ish road transport planning, one might consider the situ- ation more unequal than in other areas, since Sweden is quite a gender-equal society according to representations in public areas such as local and national politics, government organizations, and public associations. However, when the road transport sector is compared with private areas such as technical and business companies there are no big dif- ferences. The public road transport administration is like many business companies with private ownership, domi- nated by men and by masculine values. In these two case studies, male dominance among the attendees appears to be partly due to education. Previous research has pointed out the importance of education for participation in public issues. Disparities in educational attainment are often at the root of group differences in participation in public issues, and Burns and colleagues discussed the problem in terms of different experiences from working life, which play an important part in the differences between women’s and men’s choice to attend a public meeting (Burns et al. 2001). The average woman is less educated than the average man and has less experi- ence in working outside the home. even if she works full time, she is less likely to have the kind of job that gener- ates opportunities to utilize her civic skills (Hernes 1987; Statistics Sweden 2008). More women than men came together with their partner to the meetings and women often traveled as car passengers while men were usually car drivers. In both studies, a majority traveled by car to the consultation meetings. A few participants came by bicycle or by walk- ing and very few came by bus. In the intervention study, no one traveled to the meeting by bus. Greed (2006) dis- cussed whether one should plan for or against the car, but the question might as well be reformulated to ask whether the planning should be for male car drivers and against other travel modes and other groups of travelers. These patterns were not recognized in the intervention study in time to intervene and try to change them. Also, this project did not have the mandate to change more overarching patterns. From the first parts of the project (the explorative study and advertisement study), it was acknowledged that recruitment of participants was a major problem, with too much technical information in the advertise- ments. Hence, it was decided to work with changes on the invitations—that is, the advertisements should be more interesting for noninformed citizens in the intervention study. It was also decided to work on the meeting forms

244 WoMeN’S ISSueS IN TRANSPoRTATIoN, voluMe 2 and encourage project managers to introduce more inter- active meetings: open house meetings with discussions in smaller groups, walking tours in the environmental area for the road project, and addressing local groups. From experience with the project, the authors have pointed out in a written “toolbox” for road project managers and, in the project report, also discuss further research that might focus more on the early planning of the consultation process and look beyond the obvious facts about road projects. This research project was so focused on the gender perspectives in the cases that it missed the more structural facts about the organization of road planning that influenced the consultation process (lando 2003; Wittbom 2009). conclusions This research project adopted a skepticism about the dichotomous conception of gender that characterized much previous research on gender and transportation. Thus, the outcomes of the project suggest making the questions more detailed and more elaborate. The authors argue for putting more emphasis on contextual factors; diversity in communities of practice; and in forms of gender combined with various other categorizations and positions such as age, ethnicity, social and economic features, sexuality, and body characteristics and impairments in relation to the environment. At the least, environmental issues stemming from climate debates should be emphasized more. Why should the consultation about road planning be just for car drivers? In these two case studies, other road users appear to be neglected, as a few participants in only one case actu- ally took a bus to the meeting (in the city of Stockholm) and few went by bicycle or by walking. 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