International Webinar "Gender inclusion in the transport sector"
07 June 2022, organised from Paris (France)
The purpose of this webinar was to discuss the challenges in the transport sector regarding gender inclusion and identify examples and strategies on ways to bridge the gender gap.
The webinar was organized jointly by the Promotion of gender inclusion and diversity team (PGIDT) and the Working group 3 of the Technical Committee 1.1 "Performance of Transport Administrations" in PIARC.
Agenda
- Introduction to the webinar, Lina Granlund, Technical advisor strategic partnerships and promotion of gender inclusion and diversity, PIARC
- Welcome and introduction to PIARC, Patrick Malléjacq, Secretary General PIARC
- Technical committee 1.1, working group 3, how transport administrations are working with gender inclusion and diversity, Anna Wildt-Persson, Trafikverket
- Case study from Argentina, Emma Albrieu, Vialidad Nacional
- ITF’s partnership board work on gender, Sharon Masterson, ITF
- The Transportation Research Board’s standing committee on women and gender in transportation, Hilary Nixon, TRB
- Questions & Answers from participants through the Chat, moderated by Emanuela Stocchi, AISCAT
- Conclusions, Emanuela Stocchi, AISCAT
Moderator: Emanuela Stocchi, Co-chair of the Promotion of Gender inclusion and diversity Team (PGIDT), PIARC
Patrick Malléjacq, Secretary General, welcomed the participants and introduced the Association’s objectives and activities. He gave a specific overview of why and how PIARC is working with gender inclusion and he underlined the choice of the Executive Committee (ExCom) in creating the “Promotion of Gender Inclusion and Diversity Team” (PGID team) in June 2021, a team which was assigned as a permanent group of the PIARC Executive Commmittee. Patrick also highlighted that PIARC is working with gender inclusion and diversity within the technical committee 1.1 Performance of transport administrations.
The work with gender inclusion in PIARC is developing according to two different streams:
- establish recommendations for the road community and
- embed gender inclusion and diversity in PIARC processes
Patrick mentioned the Foresight session organised by international organisations at the World Road Congress in Abu Dhabi in 2019 that contributed in putting gender inclusion on PIARC’s agenda.
Emanuela Stocchi, Director of international affairs at AISCAT, Italy and member of PIARC executive committee and co- chair of the Promotion of gender inclusion and diversity team moderated the webinar.
Presentations
Anna Wildt Persson, Chief Strategist and Deputy Executive Director at the Swedish Transport Administration, Department of Strategic Development, Sweden
Anna gave an overview of the work of the PIARC technical committee that is working with organization of staff and human resources. She presented early results of roundtable discussions, a literature review and a number of case studies that have been collected all over the world on how transport administrations are working with gender inclusion.
Emma Lía Albrieu Cipollina, Project General Manager and Executive Manager of Planning and Concessions in the National roadways and Highways, Vialidad Nacional, Argentina
Emma described the situation in society in general and in the road and transport sector in particular in Argentina and the policies and actions that the road administration have adopted and implemented. Even though there are good policies and work in progress, the proportion of women in decision making positions and more senior positions remains low.
Sharon Masterson, Manager of the ITF Corporate Partnership Board, ITF
Sharon described the work with the ITF corporate partners - leading transport related companies in the private sector- and the platform ITF has created to allow private companies to contribute to policy discussions. Sharon emphasized the business case of including women in the transport sector, women make up 50 percent of the users of transport and is an important market. She also presented a new ITF gender analysis toolkit that is available to download.
Dr. Hilary Nixon, Deputy Executive Director at the Mineta Transportation Institute at San José State University and chair of the Transportation Research Board AME20 Committee on Women and Gender in Transportation, USA
Hilary presented the work of the TRB standing committee of women and gender in transportation, their research priorities and focus on involving gender and diversity both at an organizational level but also as research priorities.
After the presentations there was a a short Q&A session.
PIARC thanked the audience and all the panelists for their time and input.
Conclusions
There are a number of challenges in the transport sector regarding gender equality. To actively work with gender gender inclusion in the sector is therefore important for transport organisations, both when it comes to staffing and human resources and also when it comes to adding a gender perspective to the areas we are working with.
Women make up 50 percent of the population and as such are an important market as transport users. The business angle is important in order to make the case for gender inclusion. Businesses and staff who do pay attention to gender inclusion reach their objectives and perform better. Such simple facts are very useful tools when building the case for gender inclusion.
The whole STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) sector is unbalanced when it comes to gender but with a changing transport sector there is need to also look at recruitment from other sectors which can also be beneficial for gender inclusion in the sector.
Planning of transport infrastructure is where it all starts and where the money for projects are allocated. Gender inclusion should be highly considererd in the planning stages, which will also be a bridge to gender inclusion in other areas.
PIARC is developing a strategy for gender inclusion and diversity for the Association. One part of it is to develop strategies for greater gender inclusion in all the activities of the Association and the other part is to investigate where and how a gender perspective can be included in the technical work regarding roads and road infrastructure. In this work the business case approach will be important.
In order to ensure an inclusive transport system that embraces the needs of all users, there has to be a multitude of perspectives and the contribution of female professionals is essential: PIARC needs to remain relevant and effective, therefore gender inclusion and wider diversity must be at its heart.
In this regard, an international perspective and cooperation are a key, an added value: the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has gender equality at its heart and other International organisations such as the World Bank, the Chartered Institution of Highways and IBTTA (Women in Tolling) have implemented successful programmes in this area. Therefore PIARC, through its PGDI team, is willing to develop a fruitful cooperation with International organizations dealing with gender diversity and inclusion issues, to exchange views, to organize joint seminars, to contribute all together in advancing and promoting a robust strategy aiming at taking into consideration gender inclusion and diversity worldwide: the webinar of today was a great example of this wish and commitment from PIARC.