Article

Convergence or Divergence? Changing Gender Differences in Commuting in Two Swedish Urban Regions

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Abstract

This paper explores whether gender-based commuting gaps change in Sweden in times when policies at various levels seek to promote both spatially extended labour markets and gender equality. We use Swedish national travel survey data from 1994–1995 and 2005–2006 to explore inequality in terms of distance, time use, speed, and car use. Special attention is paid to the urban regions of Malmö and Göteborg, as they display large and diverging changes over time. Results indicate that both women and men in Sweden increased daily commuting distance over the period, and that the gender gap slightly decreased. Both women and men spent more time commuting than using faster transport systems to extend their labour market access. Women still commute by slower means of transport than do men, and this did not change substantially. At the regional level, average commuting distances for women and men converged in the Malmö region, in contrast to increased divergence in the Göteborg region. Convergence in Malmö was mainly associated with women extending their daily travel, while divergence in Göteborg depended on men extending theirs. Changed access to cars does not seem to be the main explanation of the observed difference in commuting distance between women and men in the two regions indicating that gender-related changes are largely contingent on region-specific factors.

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... Women are still widely expected by both themselves and others to be responsible for housework and for meeting the physical and emotional needs of their spouse and children (Bianchi and Milkie, 2010;Goldin, 2014). Thus although deciding who ferries children around may seem like a practical private matter to be arranged between couples, it is imbued with gendered social norms (Schwanen, 2007;Solá and Vilhelmson, 2012). These norms inform large choices as well as small. ...
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Daily mobility varies by gender and is likely related to contextual factors including the gender division of employment and family work, options for modes of transport, and support for work-family reconciliation. This paper compares travel time patterns of men and women using nationally representative time-diary data from Australia, the UK, Spain and Finland (n = 14,176). Despite similarities in men and women's total travel time within countries, results show substantial gender variation in the purpose of daily travel, the transport mode used, who is present, and the way parents in couple-headed households share travel with and for children in relative terms. The extent of the gender gaps vary cross-nationally in ways consistent with prevalent patterns in the gendered division of labour and social parenting norms, but relative gaps in child-serving travel were universal , attesting to the ubiquity of gendered mobility constraints in households with children.
... eçalışma (teleworking), çalışanların ve yöneticilerin uzaktaki ortamlardan iletişim teknolojilerini kullanarak çalışma aktivitelerine erişebilmeleri olarak da tanımlanabilen farklı bir çalışma kavramı olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır [11]. Dolayısıyla günümüzde iş ve ev arasındaki mesafe sürekli olarak artmaktadır [12]. Bu sayede kişiler çalıştıkları işyeri ortamından uzakta, istedikleri farklı bir konumdan işlerini gerçekleştirebilmekte ve bu şekilde iş yaşamına ve aile ekonomisine katkı verebilmektedirler. ...
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More than 29 million women in Turkey are not involved in business life. The female population involved in business life seems to be working in the service sector at large. Especially educated women are considered to have a serious work force and economic loss because they have children and are withdrawn from work due to various family reasons. Therefore, in this study, it was designed on a model in which women, especially those with a knowledge-based capital, can be trained in the field of entrepreneurship and convert the knowledge-based capital by using the substructure of information technology. The scope and the working system of the Entrepreneurial Women Entrepreneurship project based on this model is presented in this study. Keywords Diffusion of innovation; Women employment; Entrepreneur woman; Information technologies
... Women often have greater responsibilities for taking care of the home and family, which could be expected to have an influence on the stress experienced in relation to commuting [33]. The degree of compensation for employment requiring longer commutes might also differ by gender [34]. ...
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Background Long commutes by car are stressful. Most research studying health effects of commuting have summarized cross-sectional data for large regions. This study investigated whether the levels of stress and individual characteristics among 30–60 min car commuters were similar across different places within the county of Scania, Sweden, and if there were changes over time. Methods The study population was drawn from a public health survey conducted in 2000, with follow-ups in 2005 and 2010. The study population was selected from the 8206 study participants that completed the questionnaire at all three time points. Commuting questions in the 2010 questionnaire assessed exposure concurrently for that year and retrospectively for 2000 and 2005. In total, 997 persons aged 18–65 and working 15–60 h/week had commuted by car 30–60 min at least at one time point. Geographically weighted proportions of stress among 30–60 min car commuters were calculated for each year and classified into geographically continuous groups based on Wards algorithm. Stress levels, sociodemographic characteristics and commuting characteristics were compared for areas with high and low stress in relation to the rest of the county. This novel methodology can be adapted to other study settings where individual-level data are available over time. Results Spatial heterogeneity in stress levels was observed and the locations of high and low stress areas changed over time. Local differences in stress among participants were only partly explained by sociodemographic characteristics. Stressed commuters in the high stress area in 2000 were more likely to maintain their commuting mode and time than those not stressed. Stressed commuters in the high stress area in 2000 were also more likely to have the same workplace location in 2010, while stressed commuters in the high stress area in 2010 were more likely to have the same residential location as in 2000. Conclusion The relationship between commuting mode and time and stress is variable in place and time. Better understanding of commuting contexts such as congestion is needed in research on the health effects of commuting.
... Likewise, a higher salary can be invested in mobility resources, giving opportunities for extended activity spaces (Swärdh, 2009). Gender also has important implications for many reasons, including the unequal division of unpaid work in the home limiting the capabilities for many women to participate in certain activities (Solá, 2013;Solá and Vilhelmson, 2012). These factors are also closely related to the duties included among the daily pursuits in which individuals are engaged (e.g., wage labour, education, and household work), duties that are highly decisive for daily activity participation and thus travel. ...
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Geography, in terms of the built environment and location patterns, was traditionally, and still is, emphasized by many scholars, policymakers, and planners as greatly influencing people’s daily travel behaviour. However, taking recent decades of rapidly increasing mobility capabilities (physical as well as virtual) into account, and the related increase in individual choice opportunities, others argue that the importance of geographic factors has gradually dissolved. Starting from this discussion, the overall aim of this thesis is to examine the current role and relative significance of the built environment for the geographical extension of individuals’ daily travel in Sweden. The thesis is based on three empirical studies in which particular attention is paid to detailing the impact of geographic factors on various daily travel activities (paper I); exploring possible changes over time in the importance of the built environment for home–work distances (paper II); and the potential relaxing of the relationships between locational structures and travel behaviour when people regularly use ICTs and telework (paper III). All three papers apply multivariate quantitative approaches to a unique combination of detailed, high spatially resolved micro-data, including the national travel surveys and register data of the total population. An overall conclusion of the thesis is that the proximity of various aspects of the built environment to home still plays an important role in how far people in Sweden travel daily. However, the analyses, informed by theory emphasizing everyday spatiotemporal constraints, reveal that these relationships have become relaxed in several important respects. First, the specific time–spatial constraints associated with different daily activities that motivate trips and travel are key and also differentiating factors. When considering trips taken during holidays and for everyday leisure purposes, the built environment is less important for the observed daily travelled distance. Whereas service trips to a greater extent is associated with the built environment surrounding home, and work trips even more. Second, important changes occur over time, here examined in the case of work trips. Workers living in the same neighbourhood increasingly travel divergent distances between home and work. This suggests a continued decrease in the influence of the built environment on work related travel. Third, in terms of time-spatial relaxation, a rapid increase of telework lately is an important case. The built environment influences teleworkers’ daily travel to a lesser extent than it does regular workers’ daily travel since telework allows for the freer scheduling of daily activities in time and space. Conclusively, the results confirm the importance of considering spatiotemporal constraints related to daily activities when exploring the role of the built environment and its importance for daily travel. More generally, the thesis also remind us that the importance of the built environment changes as an integral part of larger societal transformations connected with development of mobility technologies and profound socio-economic and demographic changes.
... Resultat i GilSolá (2010), som baseras på licentiatuppsatsen, skiljer sig därmed också. Resultat i GilSolá & Vilhelmson (2012) följer dock avhandlingens avgränsningar. ...
Thesis
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In Swedish regional policy, regional enlargement, i.e. geographically extended labour markets and associated longer commuting distances, is an explicit goal. This is in order to stimulate economic growth and better match labour supply to the qualifications of the population. However, this policy seldom takes gender into account, overlooking the implications of long commuting for individuals and households in their daily living and practice. The overriding aim of the thesis is to update and deepen existing knowledge about commuting among women and men. A related ambition is also to derive knowledge that could serve an urban and regional policy and planning that advances transport systems and infrastructures better suited for women and their access to the labour market, as well as more equal living conditions for women and men. The thesis is based on two empirical studies, one quantitative and one qualitative. The statistical study uses Swedish national travel survey data covering the periods 1994-95 and 2005-06 and focuses on changes over time in women’s and men’s commuting. The qualitative study is based on twenty in depth interviews with parents with small children living in the Gothenburg urban region, being highly skilled with specialized labour markets, and recently having moved to a new residential location. This study investigates the crucial role of work trips in households’ daily life and asks what women and men perceive as important when decisions affecting travel distance, travel time and mode of transport (travel speed) are taken. The theoretical approach of the thesis is based on time geography and theories of mobility, accessibility and gender. Results from the statistical study show that gender gaps in work trips, as regards distance and speed of travel, have converged slightly over the period. However, women still commute much shorter distances than men do, thus having less spatial reach and access to the labour market. Women and men have equivalent commuting times, implying that men in general use faster means of transport than women. The overall (national) pattern of convergence hides regional variation. A distinct pattern of convergence between the sexes occurs in the Malmö region, while divergence occurs in the Gothenburg region. Regression analyses show that several aspects related to the individual, and to her environment, affect the work trip distance and time in different ways for women and men. For example, having small children associates with reduced trip time for women, and increased trip distance and time among men, other important factors held constant. Results from the qualitative study show how important aspects shaping the work trip are clearly gendered. For example, the wish to have a work place near to the children is more pronounced among women. However, decisions related to the use of a car often give men priority. Also, fairly non-gendered factors shape the work trip, for example housing (location) preferences and the perception of trip time as being useful or not. Work trips made by public transport are experienced as a relief by those who can use the time on board for purposeful activities (e.g., work or rest), but as a burden by those who have no such opportunity. The consequences of long work trips for the household members, as regards household work and caring as well as individual’s free-time activities, depend on type of gender contract of the household as well as possibilities to use certain space-time strategies in everyday life. In conclusion, the study shows that Swedes are moving towards more gender equal commuting, but at a very slow pace. At the household level, development depends on the how gender contracts are negotiated, and how societal structures (regarding work locations and supply of public transportation, for example) constrain any decision shaping work related mobility.
... Other recent work by mobility geographers at the University of Gothenburg focuses on long-term trends and trend breaks in daily and transnational mobility by gender, age, and cohort in Sweden Vilhelmson, 2011, 2014;Gil Solá and Vilhelmson, 2012). A similar approach is used in an analysis of exceptional longitudinal data collected in a different context, a rural area of the Philippines (e.g., Olsson, 2009Olsson, , 2012) -notably, one of the few contemporary Swedish studies not treating Sweden or Swedes. ...
... The increased size of these areas is seen as an expression of increased commuting distances and is used as a measure for regional enlargement or expansion. This occurs when commuting across municipal borders increases to such an extent that LLMAs merge [4]. This rapid change has been questioned by Amcoff [5], who could not find concrete evidence of it after careful analysis of the register-based data used for the delineation. ...
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... In the Swedish context, several individual demographic and socioeconomic factors have been found to influence daily mobility patterns. Gender (e.g., Gil Sola and Vilhelmson, 2012), income (e.g., Swärdh, 2009), education (e.g., Sandow, 2011), car access (e.g., Vilhelmson, 2007), household composition, and life course (e.g., Fransson, 1991) are important determinants that are controlled for here (see Table 3 for further description). Note that several other individual factors, not considered here due to the content of the data, are also important determinants, such as social networks (Dugundji et al., 2012;Tilahun and Levinson, 2011), the fact that people to some extent choose their place of residence based on their travel rationales (Cao et al., 2009), and attitudes (Kitamura et al., 1997). ...
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While the Nordic literature on rural migration and gender relations has usually focused on the push effects of a patriarchal or traditional gender culture on out-migration of women, this article centres on the conjoint way in which regional gender contracts and female in-migration shape one another. On the basis of survey data of women who migrated into Valdres, a rural area in Norway, as well as interview material, three ideal types of rural gender contracts are identified: traditional, modern and alternative. It is further demonstrated that women living by a traditional gender contract are more often attracted to Valdres than women living by modern and alternative gender contracts, and seemingly also tend to stay for a longer period of time. With the help of Halfacree's model of rural space, it is argued that the in-migration of women serves just as much to sustain the region's traditional gender contract as to challenge it.
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Feminist geographers have documented that the spatial entrapment of many women negatively affects their economic opportunities. The experiences of many African-American women, however, suggest that the spatial-entrapment thesis requires refinement. I argue that the spatial-entrapment thesis is based on a problematic conceptualization of the links between space and power in people's daily lives, one that equates immobility with powerlessness and mobility with power. The thesis not only theorizes power as unidirectional (i.e., more power, more mobility), it also masks important differences among women by undertheorizing mobility and immobility relative to social relations other than gender, such as “race.” I argue that, depending on the constellation of power relations, the spatial boundedness of women's lives is a potential resource for, as well as a constraint on, their economic security. The utility of this reconceptualization of the links between space and power for examining the opportunities for and barriers to women's economic security is demonstrated through an analysis of the role of place-based personal networks in the survival strategies of working poor African-American and white women with children in Worcester, Massachusetts. I first evaluate these women's experiences in terms of the spatial-entrapment thesis. Then I examine whether women's use of spatial rootedness in the construction of their survival strategies can be enabling as well as constraining. The results confirm that the spatial boundedness of women's daily lives and their survival strategies are mutually constituted; that is, place-based personal networks are an important component of survival strategies, and can be both enabling and constraining, depending on how racism structures women's experiences.
Article
Commuting in Italy has always been addressed without regard to gender differences. Following the issuance of a comprehensive database by the National Statistical Institute, it is now possible to analyze gender differences in personal mobility for the first time in Italy. For our analyses we used Local Labor Systems (LLS) zoning in lieu of administrative zoning. LLSs are territorial subdivisions based on the principle of a self-contained labor market and are widely used in Italy. This article also reports the results of a multidimensional data analysis aimed at highlighting relations between different gender-based commuting patterns and a set of variables (education level, age, household structure, occupational category, and position, etc.). The analysis points out gender differences in the relationship among commuting and socioeconomic characteristics, reveals that these relationships are in turn related to the economic structure and geographical context of different regional labor markets, and suggests to analysts that they be sensitive to singular context when interpreting the meaning of gender differences in commuting.
Article
A persistent empirical finding in the research on travel patterns is that women tend to engage in shorter work commutes than men. Research evaluating the degree to which this gender differential in commuting may be explained by the division of labor in the household has produced decidedly mixed findings. This paper presents a critical review of the methods and results of recent research on the gender differential in commuting along with the associated implications for the household responsibility hypothesis (HRH). While all of the articles reviewed are informative and unique, not all conclusions are well supported. The paper then tests the HRH using the 1990 NPTS travel data. The new evidence confirms that women continue to exhibit shorter commute times and distances than men and provides support for the HRH. The paper concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for further research.
Conference Paper
There are many signs indicating that the mobility of women has significantly changed in the last decades: young women possess a driving license almost as often as young men, and women’s car availability and their average mileage per year have increased. At the same time more and more women combine job and family. In the present paper the authors explore the effects that these changes have on women’s mobility in Germany. The central questions are whether women adapt their mobility behavior to that of men or develop a woman-specific behavior, in particular for the use of the car, and whether household structure and employment status have the same effect on travel patterns for men and women. Using the national travel survey of Germany, a group classification is carried out in order to compare groups with similar basic conditions. The grouping variables are sex, employment status and household structure. The analysis is restricted to individuals between 30 to 49 years of age in order to minimize variation in the life-cycle to the extent possible. The results show that single men and women share many similarities. Gender differences reach the highest level for the group of multi-person households. As long as only sex and household type are taken into account, the gender differences found are consistent with the literature. However, the additional distinction of employment status reveals a more differentiated view on gender differences in travel patterns. Men are rarely part-time employees or homemakers. But once they have this role they often have even more strongly pronounced travel characteristics that normally are ascribed to women. By contrast, the travel patterns of full-time employed women are still very different in comparison to their male counterparts. In addition, when working full-time, women are to a higher degree responsible for household duties and child care. In this context, the car seems to have the ambivalent role of affording more flexibility while at the same time solidifying the traditional role of women in household duties and child care.
Article
From a Swedish regional development policy perspective, increased long-distance commuting is viewed as a means for creating larger local labour markets and thus stimulating regional economic growth. One of the prerequisites for such a development is that individuals are willing to commute longer distances. In the context of a relatively peripheral and sparsely populated area in northern Sweden, this paper aims to study commuting behaviour and factors influencing individuals’ propensities to commute longer distances. Using a longitudinal set of geo-referenced data, individuals’ commuting propensities were estimated in a binary logistic regression, and significant effects were found for a range of socio-economic and demographic factors. The results also show that the local labour market’s geographical structure is important. Overall, most individuals commute within their locality of residence and women commute shorter distances than men do – a pattern that has been relatively stable since the beginning of the 1990s. This article attempts to outline causes and effects of this commuting behaviour, which are important to understand in the development of regional development policies aimed at increasing geographical labour mobility.
Article
A growing number of people are long-distance commuters. For some long-distance commuting is a temporary solution, while as for others it can be a more long-term strategy to promote career and income. This study addresses duration of long-distance commuting - 30Â km or more between home and work - in Sweden, and what characterizes individuals who commute for shorter or longer periods. The effects of long-distance commuting in terms of economic outcome for both partners in a commuter household are analysed. The study is based on register data for the years 1995-2005 covering all long-distance commuters in Sweden. One finding is that previous experience of long-distance commuting makes it more likely to have a long duration of long-distance commuting. In addition economic incentives, such as a higher income, are positively correlated for continuing to long-distance commuting more than a few years. Furthermore, the analysis shows that male commuters benefit more in terms of economic outcome of long-distance commuting. It is concluded that the trend with increasing long-distance commuting can sustain not only gender differences on the labour market but also within households. Finally, the paper indicates that long-distance commuting is a strategic mobility choice for households, rather than a short-term solution for a few years.
Article
Thesis t.p. and abstract laid in. Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborg University, 1999. Includes bibliographical references (p. 214-226).
Article
This paper evaluates household travel surveys for the Washington metropolitan region conducted in 1968 and 1988, and shows that commuting times remain stable or decline over the twenty year period despite an increase in average travel distance, after controlling for trip purpose and mode of travel. The average automobile work-to-home time of 32.5 minutes in both 1968 and 1988 is, moreover, very consistent with a 1957 survey showing an average time of 33.5 minutes in metropolitan Washington. Average trip speeds increased by more than 20 percent, countering the effect of increased travel distance. This change was observed during a period of rapid suburban growth in the region. With the changing distributional composition of trip origins and destinations, overall travel times have remained relatively constant. The hypothesis that jobs and housing mutually co-locate to optimize travel times is lent further support by these data. .
Tjänsteresor i människors vardag: Om rörlighet, närvaro och frånvaro, PhD Dissertation
  • Bergström Casinowsky
Förflyttningar, en sammanhållande länk i vardagens organisation
  • T Friberg
A time perspective on gendered travel differences in Sweden, Licentiate thesis, School of Architecture and the Built Environment
  • K Fults
Hverdagslivets reiser: En analyse av kvinners og menns daglige reiser i Oslo. PhD Dissertation, Department of Sociology and Human Geography
  • R J Hjorthol
Kommunala utmaningar och genus: Om regionförstoring, pendling, produktion och reproduktion
  • T Friberg
Effekter av framtida regionförstoringar i Mälardalen
  • Å Dahl
  • H Einarsson
  • U Strömqvist
Om konsten att foga samman: kvinnors förflyttningsprojekt i tid och rum
  • T Friberg
Det uppsplittrade rummet: Regionförstoring i ett genusperspektiv
  • T Friberg
Vägen till jobbet: Om kvinnors och mäns arbetsresor i förändring [The way to work: On women's and men's changing work trips
  • Gil Solá
Gendered mobility: A study of women's and men's relations to automobility in Sweden. PhD Dissertation, Department for Interdisciplinary Studies of the Human
  • M Polk