© Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Justin Mott | Patrons outside the Cultural Post Office in Nghe An Province, Vietnam | 2011
How mobility and safety support women's economic empowerment
Access to income and assets
Women are more likely to work outside the home when they can travel independently and safely
Rapid assessment of sexual harassment in public transport and connected spaces in Karachi
A study in Karachi found that more than four out of five working women and students and nearly seven in ten homemakers were harassed at least once while commuting in the previous year; of those experiencing harassment, 23 percent of working women, 31 percent of students, and 20 percent of homemakers reduced their use of public transportation as a result.
Asian Development Bank | 2014
Policy brief: A safe public transportation environment for women and girls
Personal safety concerns led women in Karachi to use public transport less in the evening; report authors posited a related decrease in women’s “access to continuing education, flexible working arrangements or night shifts, and leisure activities.”
Asian Development Bank | 2015
Determinants of female labor force participation in Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis of PSLM (2004-05) Micro Data
Women in Pakistan who own or have access to a car were more likely to join the labor force.
Ejaz | 2007
Gender and economic choice: What’s old and what’s new for women in Afghanistan
In central Afghanistan, restrictions on mobility limited women’s ability to find work, socialize, and build networks.
Echavez | 2012
National study on women’s access to financing in Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, women’s limited access to networks was a key factor hampering women’s ability to scale up microenterprises.
Cherie Blair Foundation for Women | 2014
Infrastructure projects that increase mobility and safety in travel tend to affect women’s labor force participation and earning opportunities more than men’s because of greater constraints on women
The poverty impact of rural roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, a major road development project increased women’s participation in the workforce by 51 percent, compared to 49 percent for men.
Kandker | 2009
Women’s economic empowerment and inclusive growth: Labor markets and enterprise development
Strong infrastructure and proximity to urban areas expanded women’s access to high-productivity waged work; infrastructure deficits had a greater negative affect on women’s earning opportunities compared to those of men.
Kabeer | 2012
Power to make decisions
Improving public transportation and infrastructure helps women and girls exert greater agency in socializing, civic participation, and control over their own health and finances by increasing their ability to access services on their own
The contracting world of girls at puberty: Violence and gender-divergent access to the public sphere among adolescents in South Africa
The amount of public space accessible to girls in South Africa decreased by roughly 50 percent between grade 5 and grade 8–9, while space accessible to boys increased by over 100 percent during the same time period. Study authors posited that girls’ reduced access to public space constrained their ability to take advantage of services and opportunities.
Hallman et al. | 2013
How mobility and safety produce further benefit
Access to services
Lack of mobility can hamper women’s access to education and health services
Gender and transport in the Middle East and North Africa region: Case studies from West Bank and Yemen
In Yemen, lack of mobility was cited as a major restriction on girls’ ability to attend school; one-third of women delivered babies without medical care due to lack of appropriate transportation.
World Bank | 2011
Political participation
Greater mobility increases women’s participation in the political realm
Paid work, women’s empowerment, and inclusive growth: Transforming the structures of constraint
In Bangladesh, women with formal or informal work outside the home were more likely to vote (and to do so based on their own preferences) compared with those who work from home or do not work for pay.
Kabeer | 2013
Education
Improving mobility can increase women’s educational attainment
Providing new opportunities to adolescent girls in socially conservative settings: The Ishraq Program in rural Upper Egypt
An evaluation found that 68 percent of the girls who completed the Ishraq program, which aims to reduce social and mobility constraints, entered middle school by the end of the program; none of the girls living in control areas enrolled in middle school.
Brady et al. | 2007