GENDER DIFFERENCES IN WORK-TRIP LENGTHS : A CASE STUDY OF CLEMENTI

Abstract

As the number of women joining the paid labour force continues to grow, questions on sex discrimination and inequality are bound to arise. Journey-to-work studies approach these questions through spatial parameters. Findings in the Western countries have shown that women are still in a disadvantaged position and this is reflected by their shorter work trips compared to men. Among the reasons that have been suggested for women's shorter work trips are their lower incomes, their greater propensity to work part-time, to be employed in certain occupations, their household responsibility, their lower mobility due to their greater reliance on public transportation, and the spatial distribution of the different kinds of occupations women hold. There was, however, no one primary causal factor to account for women's shorter work-trip lengths. Determining the causal factors accounting for women's shorter work-trip lengths is important because they may have profound implications for many aspects of urban social structure beyond the realm of simple pattern description. This study seeks to examine the journey-to-work patterns, in terms of work-trip lengths, between males and females in the local context and to indentify the explanatory causal factors underlying the patterns. Findings in this study corroborate with the Western countries where women are found to have significantly shorter work-trip lengths. The results show that women's lower income and their lower educational achievement, all contribute to their generally shorter work-trip distance. Women's shorter work-trip time can be attributed to male-female differences in mode of transport used for journey-to-work. Household responsiblity and age do not seem to affect women's work-trip lengths. In terms of the labour force characteristic, women's greater propensity to work part-time, their tendency to pursue certain occupations, and to be employed in certain industries, have all contributed to women's shorter work trip. In the final analysis, however, income is still found to be the underlying causal factor explaining for women's shorter work-trip distance. Locational factors, in terms of the distribution of female and male employment opportunities, are also found to contribute to women's shorter work-trip distance. In fact, spatial and non-spatial (e.g. income) factors interact with each other to accentuate and perpetuate gender differences in work-trip lengths. This study is meant to be exploratory but, results are clear to suggest that additional research in this area needs to be pursued further . This is because the policy implications associated with it are immense.