Women’s Issues in Transportation: Summary of the 4th International Conference, Volume 1: Conference Overview and Plenary Papers (2011)

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19 BReAKOuT SeSSION Gender Equality in Transportation in Sweden Gloria J. Jeff, Consultant, Presiding Åsa vagland, Swedish Government Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA) Malin Henriksson, Linköping University, Sweden eva Wittbom, Stockholm University and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden The session on gender equality in transportation in Sweden, moderated by Gloria Jeff, included dis-cussions on the evolving policy context in Swe- den, where gender equality had been made an explicit priority for transport policy, at least nominally. The discussions focused on how the implementation of this goal has faired in recent years, including how the policy context has evolved and how gender mainstreaming has percolated into the practices, goals, composition, and institutional culture of specific transport agencies. gender eQualiTy as subsidiary obJeCTive of swedish TransporT poliCy: whaT has happened sinCe 2004? Åsa Vagland vagland provided an overview of the recent political his- tory of Sweden as it relates to gender equality in the trans- port sector. She then evaluated the progress of gender mainstreaming in Sweden as reflected in policies, reports, and agency management during this period. In particular, national-level highlights include the following events: • December 2001: Sixth subsidiary objective on gen- der equality in the transport sector is adopted. • May 2006: Government bill on transport policy is adopted that requires all subsidiary objectives to be ana- lyzed through a gendered perspective and all transport agency steering committees to be at least 40% women (or men) by 2010. • May 2006: Government bill on gender equality is adopted, stating women and men shall have equal power to shape society and their own lives and identifying gen- der mainstreaming as a strategy to be used to achieve national gender equality objectives. • Fall 2006: New government consisting of represen- tatives from the Alliance for Sweden coalition is elected, replacing the Social Democrats, who had been in office for 65 of the past 74 years. • June 2009: Government bill on transport policy is adopted. The overall objective is kept the same, but the subsidiary objectives are replaced with a functional objective relating to accessibility that declares the trans- port system will be “gender equal” and with an impact objective relating to health. • 2009: Government guidelines for transport agen- cies are reduced, omitting policy objectives (and their gender equality component), leaving only the require- ment that committees be at least 40% women (or men). • 2010: Transport sector to be reorganized into new transport agency whose policies relating to gender main- streaming are yet unknown. In reviewing government and agency reports over this period, vagland observes increased awareness and discussion about gender equality in the planning pro- cesses in both the National Rail Administration and the Swedish Road Administration. Female representation on steering committees has also increased. While 80% of committee members were male in 2004, all commit- tees meet the 40% to 60% requirement today, although agency managers are still predominantly male; however,

20 WOMeN’S ISSueS IN TRANSPORTATION, vOluMe 1 the reorganization of the transport sector under a more conservative political leadership, along with weakened government guidelines, leaves unclear the future trajec- tory of gender mainstreaming. vision meeTs praCTiCe: planning for a gender-eQual TransporTaTion sysTem in sweden Malin Henriksson Although gender equality in the transport system has been an explicit part of Swedish policy since 2001, gen- der equality is not fully integrated into daily activities and planning practices, and the concept of what consti- tutes a gender-equal transport system is undefined, leav- ing the implementation of gender mainstreaming to the interpretation of individual professionals. To better understand the state of the thinking among these professionals, Henriksson conducted a pilot study of in-depth interviews with six planners, four public agency representatives, and two gender equality experts. She asked each to envision a city characterized by equal- ity focusing on transport. She characterized perspectives on the role of gender equality in transport policy in the following three categories: • Gender equality as a safety issue: Making transport systems and streetscapes that are more secure for women is a means of attaining gender equality. • Gender equality as a matter of saving time: Because women are more likely to juggle work with household errands and child-care duties, sparing women from mak- ing fragmented trips (e.g., by implementing more cen- tralized urban design) is a means of attaining gender equality. • Gender equality synchronized with new planning ideals (with the implicit assumption that single-occupant vehicles are masculine): In light of new sustainabil- ity goals, advancing gender equality is one means for advancing sustainability. In addition, Henriksson reports hearing two main views on how gender equality relates to transport plan- ning. One is that ideals of gender equality do not affect planning because planning is a gender-neutral process and what is good for one person is good for everyone. Another view is that planning does not affect gender equality (i.e., issues of gender inequity cannot be solved through the transport sector). Overall, the results reveal how gender equality may be framed in different ways, raising impor- tant questions about the extent that the gendered perspec- tives of planners may affect planning outcomes. gender mainsTreaming in TransporTaTion: The impaCT of managemenT ConTrol Eva Wittbom The focus of this study was to evaluate how the macro- scopic goal of attaining a gender-equal transport system is implemented on a micro level through specific manage- ment control systems at individual transport agencies. The researchers conducted interviews, attended strategic planning meetings, and reviewed documents from the Swedish Road Administration and the Swedish National Rail Administration. They found agencies tend to rely on “SMART” (spe- cific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) perfor- mance measures for evaluating gender mainstreaming, especially counts of the number of women and men par- ticipating in various activities. These measures are prob- lematic because they say little about the distribution of power and do not distinguish between the different ways female perspectives might be incorporated into the core business. A reliance on these measures is an indication that the concept of gender equality is somewhat misunderstood at the agency level. Wittbom suggests that for true gender mainstreaming to occur, better understanding is needed, with more internalized gender awareness, and the pro- cess will be transformative rather than additive. TopiCs for furTher researCh 1. Develop a description of the transformation into a gender-equal transport system. What does such a process look like and how would we know if we had one? 2. Develop alternative performance measures for eval- uating progress toward gender equality in transportation. How can performance measures be made more relevant and effective in bringing about true transformation? 3. Identify what sorts of planning processes are most effective in bringing about gender equality in transporta- tion. What are the best practices for the process of planning, rather than the outcome of planning? How can we more equally involve both genders in the planning process? 4. evaluate how, if at all, power relations have changed or need to change in Swedish transportation agencies, and conduct continued evaluation of progress made toward gender mainstreaming in Sweden as cir- cumstances continue to evolve. 5. Identify what sorts of educational campaigns or other policies can be most effective in creating cultural shifts and truer understanding of gender mainstreaming among individuals and organizations that are underex- posed to the concept.