August 15, 2022
We Go Further Together: Gender Equity in Transport
Overcoming Gender Mobility Barriers through Community and Collaboration
Transportation plays a critical role for communities: it connects us to jobs, healthcare, education, and family. Women make up half of our global community, yet we are limited by policies and practices that institutionalize bias, which leads to significant inequities in safety, access, security, and opportunity. In 2019 the World Economic Forum projected it will take 208 years to achieve gender equality in the United States alone. These disparities are also found in the transportation sector, where only 15% of the 15 million transportation jobs are held by women.
Despite these startling statistics, gender is the single biggest organizing feature worldwide, and a major factor in travel behaviors. Transport safety, access, and security shape the way women move and live their lives.
To accelerate gender equality in transportation, ITS America is convening a global forum to hear from leaders in gender mobility and discuss actionable strategies to overcome barriers to advance the Global Sustainable Development goal to achieve gender equality and empower more women and girls.
This forum is the first annual symposium on the importance of empowering women in transportation. Our mission is to educate stakeholders on the importance of this issue, elevate leaders in this field, and share best practices and actionable strategies that advance gender equity in transportation. And we’re excited to host it at the 2022 ITS World Congress!
We’re inviting leaders from all over the world to address these challenges head-on. We’ll hear from women from across the globe about how they overcome challenges and lead strategies to advance gender mobility that is safe, and accessible. We’ll explore how transport technology can help move us forward. And we’ll dive into the data – the real and measurable impact that gender inequity in transport has on women.
We’ll explore the tough and important questions, like:
- What are the most significant misconceptions or misunderstandings about this work?
- How do we stay informed and engaged on emerging issues and developments in this work?
- How can we promote gender mainstreaming and gender inquiry in our work? Where are our points of collaboration?
- What are the questions that are not being asked that we need to explore?
- What does success look like? If we’re able to advance gender mobility, what does transportation look like 10 years from now?
Speakers will include some of the most thoughtful and innovative women leading the transportation field, including:
- Jen Klein, White House Gender Policy Council
- Nuria Fernandez, USDOT Federal Transit Administration Administrator
- Robin Hutcheson, Deputy Administrator, USDOT Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
- Seleta Reynolds, Los Angeles Metro
- Jannet Walker Ford, WTS International
- Karen Philbrick, Mineta Transportation Institute
- April Rai, Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO)
While this will be the first iteration of this summit, it is built on a foundation of work that ITS America has been cultivating for years. Our MobilityXX initiative is dedicated to increasing the number of women in the transportation industry by 10% over the next decade. Find more information on this campaign with WTS and The Ray at www.mobilityxx.org.
We’re excited to host these important conversations and we can’t wait to join our partners and build new connections to drive this work forward. Learn how to participate by visiting: www.itsamericaevents.com/world-congress/
