Week 1: Introduction: an overview.

This seminar provides an overview of the course. It draws attention to the miniaturisation of information communication technologies and to the radical drop in the cost of such technologies noting that these changes have led to highly distributed use of these technologies by households and by individuals. The seminar explores the advent of cheap readily available information communication technologies for the operation of transport systems in their interaction with gender. The key document for this course will be:

http://www.eoc.org.uk/PDF/wp_34_gender_equality_in_transport.pdf

The key issues emerging from this very useful document are:

• "The greater amount of time that women spend relative to men on caring-related roles, results in women and men travelling by different means, at different times, to different locations over different distances. These differences are not addressed systematically by current transport policy and provision.
• The present transport system has largely been constructed for men by men. The evidence for this is provided by the nature of vehicle design; the extent of radial routing (i.e. routes that run from suburb to centre) in public transport, which means that passengers have to travel to the centre and out again to arrive at an area adjacent to their starting points; and the emphasis on the peak-time periods in the provision of bus and rail services.
• Transport professionals are increasingly aware of the social dimension of transport. There is, however, still a fundamental lack of awareness of the gender-differentiated impact of transport policy and provision. Piecemeal initiatives, such as the Public Transport Gender checklist produced by the Department for Transport, are often not implemented at a local level and their take-up is not closely audited.
• The need to address specifically the different needs of women and men appears not to be understood by transport policy-makers. This may be because it is believed that it is cheaper to do nothing, that gendered transport planning is an �add-on� to �proper� transport planning and policy and that gender-awareness does little to improve or substantially re-direct the final outcome of the transport policy.
• In reality, this unintended gender-bias in UK transport policy means that more women than men are facing transport problems in accessing a range of public services, in taking up job opportunities, and in engaging in the normal activities of citizens. This disproportionately affects women on low incomes because of their greater use of public transport. It also means that substantial hidden costs in money and time are being placed on women�s participation in UK society.
• The failure of UK transport policy to take gender issues seriously means that significant amounts of public money are being wasted in a range of service delivery sectors. Government policies on enhancing quality of life, improving skills for employment, social exclusion and health inequalities, all risk significant policy failure because transport policy does not take gender issues seriously."

In addition to endorsing the importance of these issues raised by Professor Kerry Hamilton and her colleagues in their report for the Equal Opportunities Commission (2005)in the United Kingdom, in this seminar series we also wish to explore the role information communication technologies can play in redressing the negative situation of gender and transport so precisely captured in the Hamilton et al. (2005) report.

In the coming weeks, we will explore these issues identified by Hamilton et al. (2005), along with a number of others, to evaluate the grounds for improvement in the relationship between gender and transport afforded by ICT development in the developed world.

Our second seminar next week will explore in detail the set of relationships which impair women's mobility and ready access to the range of necessary public services in contemporary society. The seminar is titled: Gender, transport and stranded mobility: a traditional set of relationships This seminar will provide an introduction to the concept of stranded mobility and will explore the interactions between household organisation, the transport system and the mobility constraints experienced by women.

Our third seminar will move on from the traditional equation of the restricted mobility of women and its consequence of restricted access to services to consider the ways in which new communication technologies can operate to ease the strength of both of these restrictions. The seminar is titled: Gender, transport and flexible scheduling: new options provided through information communication technologies. This seminar will explore the extent to which new information communication technologies can be used to substitute for travel, to better coordinate travel and to more efficiently share tasks between household members. The seminar explores the consequences new information communication technologies can have for gender equity in and around travel and transport.

Our fourth seminar concentrates on the way in which new information technologies can open out the planning process to better accommodate the participation of those who have been traditionally excluded by physical and cultural access constraints. It is titled: Redesigning the relationship between gender, transport and information communication technology: identifying the importance of gender representation in planning. This seminar draws attention to the role information communication technologies can play in better integrating women in particular into the planning process and transport and planning professions.

Our fifth seminar focuses on the changes in the shape and structure of employment opportunties afforded by the advent of new information communication technologies. The seminar is titled: Gender, transport and information communication technology: the advent of the home office and teleworking. This seminar will explore the impact of new information communication technologies on women�s employment opportunities and will consider the impact that such change can have on their transport needs and upon the transport system

Our sixth seminar turns to the world of leisure and consider how new information communication technologies may affect gendered leisure patterns. It is titled: Gender, transport and information communication technology: new sociabilities, new travel patterns. This seminar will explore the new sociabilities that are emerging around the advent of domestic information communication technologies and explore the travel patterns that have emerged and are likely to emerge around them.

Our seventh seminar focuses on the ways in which new information technologies coupled with new forms of transport organisation can be harnessed to deliver more gender friendly services by making these available at the neighbourhood level. The seminar is titled: Gender, information communication technology and accessibility planning: institutional adjustments in an electronic age. This seminar will introduce the concept of accessibility planning: at the heart of this concept is the delivery of necessary social and economic services within neighbourhoods. The electronic delivery of services is an important institutional option for reducing congestion and environmental damage which at the same time could greatly reduce the time density of women�s tasks. The seminar explores the form that such services could take in conjunction with the physical delivery of services into a neighbourhood. Our seventh seminar examines the way in which new information communication technologies can be harnessed to deliver more gender friendly forms of mobility or transport to centralised services. The seminar is titled: Gender, transport and health care: demand responsive transport, intelligent booking systems and health care system savings. This seminar examines the implications of new information communication technologies for the design of transport modes better suited to the needs of women, most particularly in respect of their health needs. The seminar explores demand responsive transport options and the consequences that the adoption of such new modes of transport provision could have upon health care system savings.

Our ninth seminar explores the relationship between ethnicity, gender, mobility and new information communication technology in the contemporary period. The seminar is titled: Ethnicity, gender and mobilising social capital in mobility arrangements: the use of the cell phone. This seminar will explore the use of the cell phone by low income women from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and describe the impact that the availability of the cell phone has on the flexible organisation of household and social network mobility arrangements. The seminar reflects on the implications of these coordinatory capabilities for gendered social capital development.

Our tenth seminar focuses upon the policy dimensions for action in relation to modifying existing relationships between gender and transport. The seminar is titled: Measuring and modifying the relationship between gender and transport: the role of new information communication technologies. This seminar will explore the role new information communication technologies can play in measuring and modifying the relationship between gender and transport to produce and afford greater social equity in mobility. It will examine the progressive steps that can be taken by policy makers making use of new information communication technologies to provide new and healthier relationships between gender and transport.

Our eleventh and final seminar in this series will pull together or wrap up the discussions from each of the individual sessions into a cohesive and comprehensive agenda for change within this important arena of gender, transport and information communication technology, most particularly in respect of Europe.

Further suggested reading:

http://www.geocities.com/margaret_grieco/working/space.html

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