Gender Research in Transport: Key Issues, Tools and Policy Relevance in Serbia

Although transport may appear as a gender-neutral sector, women’s and men’s experiences with transport systems and services differ, particularly with respect to accessibility, affordability, safety and personal security. The topic of this paper is introducing key issues related to gender research in transport, such as economic development, health, safety, personal security, sustainable mobility, and the impact of mobility on women’s professional and personal lives. The paper gives an overview of innovative tools developed for gender research in this sector and presents the best practices in engendering transport systems based on implementing findings of the policy-oriented research. The paper points out that there is a danger to interpret differences in travel patterns of women and men by over-simplifications, that often result in stereotypes. Therefore, the approaches to gender research in transport should include concepts of intersectionality, vulnerability, and social inclusion. The paper suggests implementing interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, participatory, evidence-based and community-based research in order to address the complex challenges of transportation. The gender consideration is still absent in the transport policy of the Republic of Serbia. The lack of gender approach to transportation design, planning and management aggravates women`s access to employment opportunities, health care, childcare, maternal care, social services and community participation, contributing to their social exclusion. The paper identifies a need to conduct and support gender research in this sector, as a first step in mainstreaming gender, enhancing economic development, and improving quality of everyday life of women and men in both urban and rural areas. The aim of the paper is to contribute developing gender transformative public policies in the Serbian transport sector in order to ensure that if offers services that incorporate the needs of both women and men into the design and delivery of transport operations and investments