Division of labour and gender differences in metropolitan car use

Abstract

This paper suggests the need for a broader view of `gender and transport' by presenting a study of gender differences in car use for maintenance travel. Although many more women are now entering the labour force than a few decades ago, they still have to undertake the larger share of household-related work. The main objective of this paper is to assess the impact of these changing gender roles on travel patterns and in particular on car use for maintenance travel. We used the survey and trip diary data of 949 respondents living in two urban and two suburban neighbourhoods of the Cologne metropolitan area. The empirical findings suggest that labour market and maintenance activities influence car use in different directions. While parenthood reduces the odds of car use by women, it increases men's car use. Labour force participation on the other hand, especially when part-time, intensifies car use for both genders. In short, a levelling influence of paid work and a traditionalizing influence of parenthood regarding car use for maintenance travel was found.

Introduction

In the course of the last 20 years, the topic of `gender and transport' has attracted increasing attention from the scientific community. Starting with a feminist critique of the gender-blind approach to transport and mobility issues (Giuliano, 1979; Rosenbloom, 1978a, Rosenbloom, 1978b, for example), a new spate of research emerged. Scholars from different social sciences rejected the assumption of a `neuter commuter' and began to examine gendered patterns of mobility, unequal access to resources, and differences in modal choice. Soon the new research split into two separate strands, both starting from the viewpoint of female transport disadvantage (see Law, 1999, 569ff), but with one concentrating on the constraints of female mobility by `women's fear' of male sexual violence (for examples, see Pain, 1991; Valentine, 1989; Trench and Tiesdel, 1992), and the other analysing gender differences in the journey to work (see Madden, 1981; Hanson and Johnston, 1985; Pickup, 1989). While this emphasis on two important aspects of gendered transport behaviour facilitated fruitful and efficient research, it also narrowed the researchers' view and overshadowed other mobility issues (see for example Kloas and Kunert, 1994a, Kloas and Kunert, 1994b and Buhr, 1999 for the national travel survey KONTIV in Germany or Hamilton and Jenkins, 2000 and DETR, 1998 for the National Travel Survey in Great Britain). Although the gendered division of labour is identified as an important factor influencing mobility, the usual approach is to view domestic work merely as a constraint of labour-force participation and the related transport. Consequently, gendered household arrangements are related to the journey-to-work in an oversimplified way instead of including travel for household related work in a more detailed analysis (for an exception see Hanson and Pratt, 1995).

In recent years, however, researchers have paid attention to the increasing motorization of women and have therefore asked whether the concept of `transport disadvantage' is still appropriate for describing and analysing female mobility (Dowling, 2000; Hjorthol, 2000; Root and Schintler, 1999; for example). This paper seeks to contribute to this field of research by presenting a quantitative study of maintenance mobility in Cologne, Germany. The main aim of the study was to show how the gendered division of labour affects travel for maintenance purposes. In addition to a descriptive analysis of the most relevant patterns of maintenance mobility, we investigated more specifically the impact of gender and household attributes on car use for maintenance travel. We focused the analysis on car use since this is probably the most important indicator for travel related environmental impacts. Two observations broach the question whether the new division of labour leads ultimately to increased car usage by women for maintenance. First, the diminishing differences between men and women with respect to available financial resources and to travel needs, because of the increasing participation and equivalent position of women in the labour market. We may therefore expect women's car usage to adjust to men's: that is, it will increase. Second, although women, like men, participate frequently in the labour market, in most families housework remains unequally distributed between the genders. Women therefore experience onerous time pressure in seeking to fulfil their employment and maintenance tasks. One strategy of coping with the severe time pressure can be the use of travel modes usually considered faster or more convenient, such as a private car. In particular, we ask whether car use by men and women differs with respect to maintenance tasks and how the division of labour within the household affects car use.

The paper is organized as follows. First, a theoretical framework for the impact of the division of labour on mobility is presented. We discuss recent changes in the division of household responsibilities by an increasing share of women in paid employment and the impact on maintenance mobility (Section 2). In Section 3, methodical issues and the data to be analysed are described. In Section 4, we present empirical data on the division of labour and travel behaviour. The core of the study, Section 5, documents our analyses of car use for maintenance tasks. Gender differences in car use for the journey to work are revealed; finally, gender differences and the influence of the division of labour on car use for maintenance purposes are considered. The paper ends with some conclusions.