Article

‘Pink transportation’ in Mexico City: reclaiming urban space through collective action against gender-based violence

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Abstract

Women-only transportation has become a popular option for urban women around the world who are tired of being groped and harassed in buses, subways and taxis. The separation of men and women in public transit is controversial among feminists, since it does not address or solve the fundamental issue of gender inequality which causes violence and harassment. However, less addressed among feminists is how violence makes women afraid to act collectively. To support them, the state can play a role in setting up measures to protect them, while they confront their attackers. This article shows how women's organisations in Mexico City use women-only transportation to create a safe place for female commuters, where municipal and state authorities have developed ‘pink transportation’. This includes segregated transport together with wider changes to laws, provision of support for victims of violence, and positive images of women which help women act collectively against violence. Pink transportation has catalysed creating wider conversations about gender discrimination, women's rights and gender equality in media and society.

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... Consignas como ni una menos (Ramírez, 2018;Sosa, 2016) es ejemplo de cómo los feminicidios han sido uno de los principales motivadores de la creciente acción colectiva por parte de las mujeres. Dunckel Graglia (2013Graglia ( , 2016 ha reportado que la acción colectiva de mujeres en México puede ayudar enmarcar problemas habituales como el acoso en el trasporte público a pasar a ser visto como un "problema de género" y de violencia hacia las mujeres. Chen (2014) considera que en la Ciudad de México la institucionalización de movimientos de mujeres (institutos gubernamentales y no gubernamentales) lejos de llevar a las nuevas generaciones a un estado de complacencia, sienta las bases para sensibilización y fortalecimiento de identidades colectivas en mujeres jóvenes y la consolidación de una conciencia feminista. ...
... Existen varios modelos que buscan explicar la participación en acciones colectivas y que toman de diferente forma varios de los constructos antes mencionados (Groenendyk & Banks, 2014;Leach et al., 2006;Sabucedo et al., 2018;omas et al., 2012;Van Stekelenburg et al., 2009;Van Zomeren et al., 2008, 2013 mostrando buenos ajustes en la mayoría de los estudios. Sin embargo, en muchos de los modelos sometidos a prueba las relaciones de dependencia e independencia entre las variables cambian de modelo a modelo --con la excepción de la identidad social al ser, casi uniformemente, considerada como variable independiente o exógena en dichos modelos--. ...
Article
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En el estudio de la acción colectiva existen múltiples modelos explicativos, sin embargo, no se conocen un modelo en el contexto de la acción colectiva en contra de la violencia hacia las mujeres en México. Por ello, el propósito del presente estudio fue explorar cómo se relacionan la identidad feminista, de género, autoeficacia, expectativas de resultados, eficacia colectiva, percepción de injusticia, indignación, norma subjetiva y las acciones colectivas a partir de una muestra de 488 mujeres de la Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México obtenida en octubre del 2019. Con un muestro no probabilístico, mediante redes sociales, se aplicaron instrumentos creados para la presente investigación. Con análisis de redes latentes y aprendizaje de redes bayesianas, se encontró que la norma subjetiva y la indignación tomaron papeles de centralidad entre las variables estudiadas, mientras que la percepción de injusticia tuvo influencia indirecta sobre la acción. La norma subjetiva y la percepción de injusticia pudieran ser clave para entender la acción colectiva en el contexto de violencia hacia las mujeres en México.
... More specifically for the Latin American context, Dunckel-Graglia (2013 addressed this topic in Mexico, focusing on the women-only transport policies implemented in Mexico City. Again, the problem of victim-blaming and the idea of a natural order between men and women emerged in her research. ...
... Many said they used baggy and long coats or jackets to hide their clothes, as well as scarves. A few reported specifically trying not to dress "provocatively" or even "dressing ugly" to avoid unwanted attention, in line with what other studies have shown (Chant and McIlwaine, 2016;Condon et al., 2007;Dunckel-Graglia, 2013;Dunckel Graglia, 2016;Soto Villagrán and Castro Reséndiz, 2018). ...
Article
Although the last decades have seen an advance in equality and empowerment for women, there are still numerous challenges to be addressed. Among them, and particularly pressing in cities, are issues of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment in public spaces. Despite the numerous effects that street harassment has on women, and the high incidence of it in different countries, this issue has not been broadly studied, and even less so in cities in the Global South. This study aims to characterise the ways in which women in Bogotá experience sexual harassment in public spaces, specifically focusing on public transport and including vehicles, stations, stops and walking routes to and from their origins or destinations. Focusing on this objective, this study made use of a mixed-method approach, including an online self-completing questionnaire, as well as in-depth semi-structured interviews. The data gathered showed that sexual harassment in public transport – and public space – is widespread in Bogotá, and intersections with age and class play a very important role. Additionally, episodes of sexual harassment are widely under-reported, and there is a general perception that reporting is useless, which is supported by accounts of women who have tried to report an incident and have faced several difficulties. Finally, policies proposed so far in Bogotá have been unsuccessful in reducing sexual harassment in public transport and, in many cases, do not tackle the problem. Consequently, a comprehensive set of policies aimed at preventing and reducing sexual harassment in different spaces associated with public transport must be put in place.
... Nonpartner violence experienced in the public sphere has gained increasing attention (ActionAid, 2013(ActionAid, , 2015UN Women, 2017) corresponding with a global shift toward increasing levels of urbanization (UN, 2014). Here, women and girls enter historically masculinized spaces to avail educational and economic opportunities, amongst other needs (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013;Mazumder & Pokharel, 2019;Neupane & Chesney-Lind, 2013;Pain, 2016;Wilson & Little, 2008). Women are at increased risk of exposure to VAWG because of their increased formal labor participation (women are increasingly seen in public spaces and traveling alone), which contradicts their gender roles and responsibilities 'homemakers' (Ruiz & Garrido, 2018;Saha et al., 2018;Silvey, 2010). ...
... Gender norms can both create and reinforce unequal relationships, and power dynamics, between women and men (Cislaghi, Manji, & Heise, 2018). They can shape beliefs around who should occupy a space and how and contribute in large measure to what Valentine described as "the spatial expression of patriarchy" (Valentine, 1989), or male dominance over public spaces, making women fearful of these spaces (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013;Mazumder & Pokharel, 2019;Neupane & Chesney-Lind, 2013;Pain, 2016;Wilson & Little, 2008). Despite the important contribution of social norms in driving non-partner VAWG, there is a dearth of literature from the Sri Lankan context. ...
Article
Whilst violence against women and girls (VAWG) by intimate partners has received increasing research attention in the last decade, non-partner violence in public spaces remains an underexplored area. With rapid urbanization, violence against women and girls (VAWG) in public spaces, including on public transport, has become increasingly relevant. Global initiatives, such as UN Women’s ‘safe cities and safe public spaces’ have begun unpacking harmful gender and social norms, which both excuse and legitimize violence and drive bystander inaction and survivor underreporting. However, there is a dearth of literature on the social norms that sustain VAWG in public spaces in South Asia, particularly in the Sri Lankan context. The following commentary will first make the case for a social norms approach to understanding and tackling VAWG in public spaces. Moving forward, alongside prevalence studies, we hope to see further normative research on VAWG in public spaces in Sri Lanka, which can inform programming and interventions that tackle the root causes of violence.
... However, some suggestions need to be considered with caution. For example, there is currently little research on women-only carriages (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013), and those countries that employ this strategy differ from Australia. Referred to as "pink" transportation, they are occasionally suggested as a solution in countries such as Australia and are often met with backlash by feminists. ...
Article
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Public transport is a known hotspot for sexual violence and harassment. Through 41 interviews with women and gender-diverse people who have experienced sexual violence and harassment on public transport, we found that women and gender-diverse people engage in extensive “safety work,” such as changing their behavior, strategizing, and planning. Safety work takes considerable time and effort, often leaving participants feeling stressed. However, participants advocated for changes to public transport to reduce the work they do to stay safe. We argue that significant changes, including primary prevention of gender-based violence, are needed to reduce their safety work.
... A complex link between gender, work, and locations emerged. Women's travel, particularly in Global South contexts, has often been argued to be limited by safety, cost, and access to private vehicles (Borker, 2021;Dunckel-Graglia, 2013;Jennings et al., 2019;Salon & Gulyani, 2010). However, research into differences in women's travel needs, in terms of needing to access different locations in different ways, rather than ability to use the existing system, has been limited. ...
... Gender-segregated or women-only transportation solutions, which have become popular this century in an attempt to create safer mobility spaces for women, provide a good example of anti-violence transport policies (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013a). Variations of women-only cars on metro lines, buses and trains, as well as women-only rickshaws, taxis and other ridesharing services, have been incorporated in a broad range of different contexts, including Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Nepal, Mexico, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013a, 2013bJoshi, Roy, Mowri and Bailey, 2022;Shah, 2018). ...
Technical Report
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This report examines the current conditions of walking and cycling in cities. It reviews the literature on the potential benefits of active mobility, highlighting the importance of moving away from car-centric development. It also explores how cities developed into car-centric environments, with a particular focus on moto-normative assumptions. The report offers recommendations for re-centring mobility spaces on people to improve the quality, enjoyment, utility and safety of active mobility.
... 9 https://techcabal.com/2022/08/18/womens-only-ride-hailing-platform-he rryde-launches-in-abuja/ 10 Such women-only services are controversial, of course: as many feminists point out, they do not address or solve the fundamental issue of gender inequality which causes violence and harassment(Dunckel-Graglia, 2013). 11 By February 2023 this training had enabled promotion of 9 administrators and some ticket vendors. ...
... 9 https://techcabal.com/2022/08/18/womens-only-ride-hailing-platform-he rryde-launches-in-abuja/ 10 Such women-only services are controversial, of course: as many feminists point out, they do not address or solve the fundamental issue of gender inequality which causes violence and harassment(Dunckel-Graglia, 2013). 11 By February 2023 this training had enabled promotion of 9 administrators and some ticket vendors. ...
... These would be considered secondary responses as they are attempting to stop perpetration rather than primary prevention. However, women-only transportation may have the potential for primary prevention if it highlights gender inequality and alleviates violence against women (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013). There are limited formal evaluations, so their success is relatively unknown. ...
Article
Primary prevention refers to addressing the root causes of violence against women. It is an increasing focus of policy and social change, and public transport is a recognized site where targeted primary prevention interventions could have high impact. However, to date, this locus has yet to be well explored. In addition, while there is a wealth of literature on feminist approaches to women's safety on and around public transport, the public transport sector itself has been slow to implement this research. This paper investigates the disconnect between primary prevention and public transport by conducting a narrative analysis of reviews of women's safety interventions on public transport and looks at how decision-makers in both primary prevention and public transport can work together to resolve this situation.
... Route and stop locations can be highly inequitable from an accessibility perspective (Nakamura and Avner, 2021;Quiros et al., 2019), as well as interfering with traffic and public spaces, health and safety (Cervero and Golub, 2007;Govender and Allopi, 2006;Kandolo et al., 2014;Pirie, 2014). Harassment and sexual assault are prevalent in some cities, with informal modes being perceived as more dangerous for women, though this is not always the case (de Koning, 2009;Dunckel-Graglia, 2013;Kash, 2019;Mũngai, 2013). Routes and schedules are also often unpredictable and unreliable. ...
Article
The integration and reform of small-scale public transport operators, often known as informal transport or paratransit, is increasingly a priority in managing urban mobility. In Jerusalem, city and national transport authorities have been working with Palestinian bus operators in East Jerusalem for over 20 years in an incremental formalization process that has seen both successes and ongoing challenges. Drawing on in-depth interviews with operators, regulators and community stakeholders, this study finds that the unification of small operators with long historical territories plays an important role in reform and service improvement. Operators and regulators are able to collaborate in order to improve services for passengers in areas such as safety, vehicle quality and some infrastructures. However, reforming route networks and enforcing level of service of remains difficult. In the context of Israel's ethnocratic municipal regime, the politics of reform are bounded in the history of the conflict, but also tied to bottom-up relationships between operators and communities.
... To solve these issues, cities across the world have relied on women-only transportation including India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Mexico City, London, Bangkok, Tokyo, Japan, Dubai, Moscow, and Rio de Janeiro (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013). Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) has emerged as a subfield of urban design and criminology to understand what makes places safer (Newman, 1973). ...
Article
Scholarship on gendered mobilities has shown that women experience transit differently than men do, particularly regarding personal safety. Not enough studies have considered the everyday interaction of women of color with transit systems. This research employs a photovoice methodology which includes in-depth interviews and phone texting with 22 low-income women of color who ride transit at least a few times a month in Oregon and Utah. Like other gender mobility research, participants discussed sexual harassment on buses, streetcar, and light rail while walking or waiting for public transportation in either crowded areas downtown or desolated spaces outside of it. At the same time, this article makes a unique contribution to this body of literature because it shows that women feel targeted also based on their racial or ethnic identity and not only their gender. The article discusses women’s actions every day to increase their sense of safety.
... On the other hand, a path can be safe for a men but due to several harassment incidents such as eve teasing [35], abusive attack, sexual harassment [4], while the same path might be unsafe for an women. Some countries even provide ''pink transportation'' [36] for women to make their commute safe. For this criterion, the value zero represents female and one represents male. ...
Article
Full-text available
Existing navigation applications such as Google Maps, Apple maps provide a core service to users to find the shortest path or the path that takes the least amount of time towards a user’s destination. The applications and other research efforts have been sought to include other features such as 3D maps, neighboring facilities, traffic information, and multi-modal alternate route suggestion based on user constraints. None of these, however, take into account an important factor: “user safety while commuting”. Although the common perception of street crime is that it is primarily a problem in the third-world countries, current popular hashtags or topics (e.g. “blacklifematters”) indicate that it is now prevalent in other parts of the world as well. Even existing multi-modal alternative route recommender systems are incapable of adapting to a dynamic set of safety features, are unable to provide new safe path updates in response to real-time commuter responses, and take little or no account of historical on-road events when designing the safe algorithm. In light of the above background, we begin by developing a generic framework, namely On-road Risk Minimization Problem (ORMP). We then introduce a dynamic population-based algorithm, that we call Safe Path for Everyone (SPaFE), that solves ORMP using multi-modal historical and crowdsourced data. Finally, our extensive empirical results demonstrate that SPaFE markedly outperforms the state-of-the-art.
... A similar pattern is found in Mexico City, where nearly 35 percent of low-SES users rate transit comfort as very bad compared to just over 26 percent of non-low SES users. Medellin, again, shows contrasting results: although there is no association between SES and perceptions of comfort, perceptions in Medellin are significantly better than those expressed in Bogota and Mexico City.Public transit systems in Bogota and Mexico City are known for having high levels of overcrowding at peak hoursDunckel-Graglia 2013, which may explain the very negative perception of comfort for the lower-SES groupMilan and Creutzig 2017). Other factors are the disparities in transit coverage in Bogota and the limited operational integration that the systems offer in Mexico City. ...
Chapter
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Uneven distribution of employment opportunities and services, the imbalances in access to housing and job opportunities for the entire population, and the difficulties of providing access to urban services for all urban dwellers may also increase socio spatial inequalities. Chapter 3 describes emerging issues related to the tradeoff between affordable housing location and transport and the need of promoting integrated planning as essential for economic development in Latin American cities and a source of opportunities for low-income populations. Many of the urban transport projects in Latin American cities have prioritized the development of mass transit corridors, which generate better access conditions for hundreds of thousands of low-income citizens. However, in some cases these projects can have an unintended impact of decreased affordability of housing options located near the new system, making access to opportunities more difficult to the city’s poorest. The degree of displacement or gentrification associated with the introduction of mass transit corridors remains unknown given the lack of research on this topic, as indicated by the related gap in the literature. Studies in which the socioeconomic and socio-spatial distribution changes occurring due to the implementation of mass transit projects are urgently needed. Additionally, land value increments generated on property values are not often captured by the public sector to leverage the financing of mass transit projects or their expansion. The experience in the region suggests that coordination between transport and land use planning is difficult due to a mismatch and variation in the implementation and development timelines of each, low technical capacity, and a lack of funding for TOD projects. TOD projects provide the opportunity to strength the coordination between the transportation, land use planning and housing sectors. It is important that each city defines a TOD policy, with pilot projects based on the previous research into the dynamics of real estate as well as the land and housing markets, within a long term planning process that includes citizen participation. TOD pilot projects can certainly improve the integration of transportation planning and land use planning. TOD projects in the region should be employed as a strategy to promote value capture mechanisms, including cross housing subsidies in which the promotion of affordable housing near transit systems becomes a reality Affordable housing initiatives require to become more diverse and innovative in order to increase the quality of these projects through a portfolio of options linked to mass transit and other infrastructure investments that increase the accessibility for their residents. As in the case of transportation infrastructure projects, it is important that those projects include accessibility indicators to evaluate the effects of these investments on the poor. The recent experience with the implementation of Cable Cars that include slum upgrading measures, and the generation of new affordable housing units with infill development measures, constitute an innovation in the region.
... Similarly, in Tokyo (Japan), Horii and Burgess (2012) found that 48% of women had been groped or touched without their consent on trains. Furthermore, Dunckel-Graglia (2013 analyzed segregated transport strategies against GBV in Mexico City. They used questionnaires, surveys, interviews, and three years of ethnographic data, and found that 70% of women felt unsafe using public transit in the city. ...
Article
Gendered mobility has attempted to understand the way in which mobility and gender are constantly shaped and built through travel choices, behaviors, and transport planning. This study sought to find a relationship between gender-based violence (sexual and street harassment and sexual abuse and assault) in mobility throughout Manizales, a medium-sized Colombian city, considering all modes of transport (walking, biking, driving private cars, motorcycles, and using public transit). Moreover, to measure the changes in travel choice and behaviors caused by violent incidents, a self-reported survey was designed and applied, through a mix of electronic and physical questionnaires, administered to users in Manizales. Furthermore, a chi-squared statistical test was conducted, so as to understand the relationships between variables, especially gender. Women reported higher incident rates of gender-based violence thana men, as experienced in modes of transport such as public transit, walking, and bike riding. Women also tended to use private modes of transport (cars, motorcycles, or taxicabs) because of gender-based violence incidents. Those incidents limit individuals’ rights to the city, as well as access to opportunities. If decision-makers want to implement successful, sustainable mobility projects, they must guarantee users' safety, as violent situations could boost changes in favor of private modes of transport, such as cars and motorcycles. Future investigations should consider minority groups, like LGBTIQ + communities, as they experience more dangerous cases of gender-based violence and discrimination in cities.
... The gender distribution for the different reasons is almost balanced for all reasons except for two: (i) security against harassment. Females reported this reason six times more than males, which might reflect the increasing gender-based violence problem in public transportation in CDMX (Rivadeneyra et al., 2015;Mejía-Dorantes and Soto Villagrán;Dunckel-Graglia, 2013;Vilalta, 2011). (ii) The second difference is in avoiding parking problems; males were twice as likely as females to report this reason to use Jetty. ...
Article
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Pooled-ride services have a significant potential for reducing traffic externalities and enhancing transportation systems in the urban environment. These services and their users’ characteristics still need further inspection and exploration. We investigated factors encouraging the shift from the currently used modes to pooled-ride-services, the choice between different pooled services vehicles types, and the frequency of use of pooled-rides, using data collected via a large-scale online survey conducted in Mexico City, Mexico (CDMX) for a start-up that organizes pooled rides, Jetty. We modeled the pooled-ride-service adoption process as a function of the users’ sociodemographics, latent travel attitudes, accessibility to public transportation, trip characteristics, reasons to use the service, and users’ activities during the trips. We estimated hybrid choice models and binary logit models, which show that users’ sociodemographic and travel attitudes are the main factors impacting the shift from different modes to pooled rides. Service-related characteristics such as multi-tasking, trip fare, and avoiding parking problems also impact the shift decision. On the other hand, the frequency of service use is mainly impacted by trip characteristics such as total trip distance, and the headway at the user’s home location nearest Metro stations. Income, employment status, number of cars in the household, and gender were the only sociodemographic factors impacting the service use frequency directly and indirectly.
... Within this broader concern with gendered access to public space, analyses of sexual assault on urban public transport have highlighted a specific set of issues. These relate to the social factors which inhibit women from exposing sexual offenders in Kathmandu (Neupane and Chesney-Lind, 2014), the effects of sexual assault on women's transport choices in North American cities (Loukaitou-Sideris & Fink, 2009), and women's appropriation of sartorial impositions to lay claim on Tehran's subway system (Bagheri, 2019), to public debates on the introduction of women-only train carriages in Mexico City (Dunckel Graglia, 2016), the absence of basic amenities such as toilets, waiting areas, proper lighting in transport zones in Kolkata (Parichiti and Jagori, 2012), and the vulnerability of transgender persons while waiting for buses in Portland (Lubitow et al., 2020). There is a relationship between the kind of sexual harassment and the density of transit environments: Overcrowded buses might facilitate unwanted sexual touching, whereas rape is more likely at an empty bus stop (Ding et al., 2020). ...
Article
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This article investigates sexual assault on commuter trains in Tokyo to unravel the folk theorizing that passengers engage in to make sense of sexual violence in the urban commons. Through what everyday conceptual work do commutersconstitute sexual violence on transit systems as a persistent aspect of city life? The discussion identifies national cultural discourses of gender and city crowds as key explanatory categories through which commuters diagnose and grapple with sexual violence on mass transit. Scenes of sexual assault on commuter trains in Tokyo bespeak the need for geographical analysis of stranger violence to articulate itself from the intersections between urban forms and manifestations of the nation in cities. By tracing these social relations on-the-move, the article highlights the value of bringing feminist studies of violence into dialogue with a sociology of urban crowds and critical geographies of public transportation. First, a focus on urban form reveals how the social properties of mass transit mediate violent intimacies between strangers in the city. Second, precisely because violence produces social knowledge by discriminating between people, analysis of sexual assault on public transport enables a more precise conceptualization of the links between passengering and urban social inequality.
... En años recientes, se estima que en México es asesinada una mujer cada dos horas y media, y las entidades con más casos reportados son Veracruz, Estado de México, Jalisco, Chihuahua y, finalmente, la Ciudad de México (Animal político, 2021a; Infobae, 2019). Otras investigaciones han encontrado que entre el 70% y 90% de las mujeres de la Ciudad de México han experimentado violencia sexual mientras transitaban en la misma (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013). Ya para 2020, se registraron un total de 940 feminicidios en México, siendo Juárez, Tijuana y Monterrey los lugares con más casos (Animal Político, 2021b). ...
Article
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Injustice frames have proven to be of utmost importance in the study of collective action, and March 8 has been a turning point for women's collective action in Mexico. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the topics in tweets related to March 8 in Mexico. A total of 166,282 tweets were extracted from March 6 to 8, 2021, with keywords associated with that date. The main topics that were found were: a) the visualization of violence against women in Mexico, b) the relationship between collective actions and the actions of the Mexican federal government and, c) a discourse that seeks to provide women with thoughts and emotions related to empowerment and collective action. The results are discussed in the light of collective action theory and cyberactivism.
... Moreover, gender-based violence deserves 12 special attention when studying the ride-hailing phenomena in Mexico City. Given the high rates 13 of crime and sexual harassment in Mexico City, as mentioned previously, the government has 14 developed strategies to increase safety and security form women, but with limited success 15 (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013;Dunckel Graglia, 2016). ...
Article
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The literature on ride-hailing has experienced rapid growth in recent years, with an accent on industrialized cities, mainly in the United States and Europe. Previous research has identified the characteristics and preferences of ride-hailing adopters in a handful of cities. However, given their marked geographical focus, whether such findings are relevant and applicable to the practice of transport planning and regulation in cities in the Global South remains largely untested. This paper examines ride-hailing in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City. We build on statistical modelling informed by the Mexico’s household travel survey from 2017 to determine the main drivers for ride-hailing adoption, unpack ride-hailing user characteristics, and understand how they differ from other transport users in the local context. We use findings to discuss the implications of ride-hailing for urban mobility in one of the largest cities in Latin America. Recognizing that the trajectory of adoption and development of app-based urban transport services differs from those followed in the United States and Europe, the paper hypothesizes that ride-hailing usage in a context such as Mexico may be mediated by social issues such as the perception of crime, risk of sexual harassment in public transportation, and lack of flexibility and quality in other modes. Such challenges are frequently experienced by women in this and similar contexts as documented by the literature. Our findings shed light on the complex role of gender and care relationships play in the adoption of on-demand transportation services. Relevant findings suggests that variables such as age, education and income have a positive effect on ride-hailing adoption, in line with the existing literature. Also in line with current literature, we find that ride-hailing in Mexico City is instrumental for leisure and health trips. However, when considering gender, and the links between gender and care responsibilities, findings show that women in households with a higher number of elders depend more on on-demand transport. These results are novel in the context of the ride-hailing literature and suggest areas for further exploration in similar contexts to inform discussions about the role of these travel alternatives for women and their ability to navigate the city.
... In Kenya and Tanzania, scholars have reported conflicts with costumers who complain about speeding, bad language, mistreatment of passengers, and poor service (Mutongi, 2006;Rizzo, 2017: 42). Women in the transport sector also experience violence and harassment (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013). ...
Article
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Workers in the informal transport sector are often exposed to multiple forms of workplace violence, for instance by the police and their colleagues. Through a collection of rich ethnographic stories and using the concept of popular resistance, this article investigates how and under what conditions rickshaw drivers in Bogotá resist violence in their workplace. The results reveal that rickshaw associations have been essential in articulating acts of everyday resistance to the legal ban on this activity, such regulating routes, fees and stops. However, associations have created new forms of oppression, being labelled as mafia‐like organisations, showing that resistance can also translate into new forms of domination. Contrary to the argument that everyday resistance is uncoordinated, this article shows that acts of everyday resistance can be organised by actors that switch between different individual and collective strategies. Thus, organisations can provide a framework to resist the law on an everyday basis.
... El fenómeno ha sido nombrado en la literatura internacional de diversas formas: acoso público, acoso sexual en el espacio público, acoso sexual público, acoso público basado en el género, acoso perpetrado por extraños y acoso callejero (Vera-Gray 2016;Kissling 1991). En México, se han empleado los siguientes términos para referirse al acoso sexual de mujeres en espacios públicos: acoso sexual en lugares públicos (Gaytan Sánchez 2009); violencia sexual en espacios públicos (Zúñiga Elizalde 2014), acoso callejero ( Campos et al. 2017; Meza de Luna y García-Falconi 2015), abuso sexual [en el transporte] ( Dunckel-Graglia 2013). Probablemente, el término acoso callejero sea el más empleado en los estudios actuales, pero como indica Vera-Gray (2016), el término se encuentra limitado a los espacios en que se puede producir el fenómeno, ya que no sería apropiado para referirnos al acoso que se produce en línea o en las redes sociales (Lewis, Rowe y Wiper 2016;Megarry 2014). ...
Chapter
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En este capítulo se examina la violencia en contra las mujeres en el espacio público o comunitario por parte de personas con las que las mujeres no tienen un vínculo personal con la persona agresora. Concretamente se examina el acoso sexual y sexista en contra de las mujeres en espacios públicos, incluyendo redes sociales. Esta forma de violencia de género ocurre cuando personas desconocidas (principalmente hombres) abordan a una o más mujeres en un lugar público (físico o virtual) que no es el lugar de trabajo de la mujer. A partir de miradas, palabras o gestos, el hombre reivindica su derecho a importunar la atención de la mujer forzándola a interactuar con él, a partir de conductas sexistas que pueden llegar a definirla como un objeto sexual (ver Bowman 1993).
... For instance, in Mexico City, sexual harassment on public transport used to be a non-discriminatory misdemeanour (like pickpocketing). However, after INMUJERES (the Mexican federal institute for gender equality and equal opportunities for women) lobbied policy-makers, violence against women on public transport was established as a form of institutionalised gender discrimination which denied women equal access to the city's resources (Dunckel-Graglia, 2013a). In Japan, penalties for 'groping' on public transport -which were traditionally lenient -were toughened in response to the persistent problem, making these actions punishable by up to seven years in prison (Lewis, 2004). ...
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Buku ini ini meruakan kolaborasi antara dosen Hubungan Internasional, Fakultas Ilmu Sosial dan Politik, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, bekerja sama dengan mahasiswa dari Indonesia International Studies Academic Utilization Community (IISAUC) di Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang. Kolaborasi ini mengangkat tema Perempuan di Indonesia dalam Menuju Kesetaraan Gender, yang merupakan manifestasi dari poin nomor lima dalam Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
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Scholarship on gendered mobilities has shown that women experience transit differently than men do, particularly regarding personal safety. Not enough studies have considered the everyday interaction of women of color with transit systems. This research employs a photovoice methodology which includes in-depth interviews and phone texting with 22 low-income women of color who ride transit at least a few times a month in Oregon and Utah. Like other gender mobility research, participants discussed sexual harassment on buses, streetcar, and light rail while walking or waiting for public transportation in either crowded areas downtown or desolated spaces outside of it. At the same time, this article makes a unique contribution to this body of literature because it shows that women feel targeted also based on their racial or ethnic identity and not only their gender. The article discusses women's actions every day to increase their sense of safety. Cover letter Dear Editors, I am submitting an article titled, "Public Transit and Gender-Based Harassment: A Photovoice Project in Portland and Salt Lake City." This research employs a photovoice methodology which includes in-depth interviews and phone texting with 22 low-income women of color who ride transit at least a few times a month TriMet in Portland and UTA in Salt Lake City. Like other gender mobility research, participants discussed sexual harassment on buses, streetcar, and light rail while walking or waiting for public transportation in either crowded areas downtown or desolated spaces outside of it. At the same time, this article makes a unique contribution to this body of literature because it shows that women feel targeted also based on their racial or ethnic identity and not only their gender. The article discusses women's actions every day to increase their sense of safety. In addition, participants make suggestions of societal and transit agency changes that would improve safety while engaging with public transportation systems. I have corrected the following issues: 1. I changed the title from "Low-income women harassment in transit: A photovoice project in Oregon and Utah" to "Low-income women harassment in transit: a photovoice project in Oregon and Utah." I made the title is the same in the manuscript and the metadata. 2. The article is already double-spaced. However, the double-space doesn't show up on your pdf. To solve this, I uploaded a pdf version, not word. 3. The manuscript already has page numbers. However, it did not show up when the pdf was built. To solve this, I uploaded a pdf version, not word. Thanks for your consideration, Ivis Cover Letter Manuscript Number: TRD-D-22-00585R2 Low-income women harassment in transit: a photovoice project in Oregon and Utah Dear Assoiate Editos Lingqian Hu, Thank you for evaluating our manuscript and inviting us to resubmit our before Sep 28, 2022. As requested we have changed the title, to convey a clearrer and more direct message. We submitted a separate sheet for the highlights and we also edited them down. With the help of other authors whos's main language is Elglish, proofreading, was accomplished. Edits are shown in red. Thanks again for the opportunity, Ivis Garcia Response to Editor Highlights  Past policies like redlining result in unsafe spaces today.  Truly safe spaces must account for experiences of low-income women of color. Participants suggest societal and transit agency changes that improve safety. Highlights
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This paper sheds light on the personal security dimension of ride-hailing from a gender perspective. We explore how features of Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) services affect riders perceptions of security when commuting in ride-hailing services, and how general perceptions of fear of crime shape the way people value such features. Moreover, we analyze the strategies women and men are using to enhance their own security in ride-hailing and factors influencing these strategies. We conducted a survey of users of the TNC DiDi in Mexico City. The statistical methods used are structural equation models SEM and ordered logit models OLOGIT. Results show that women are more likely to value the information made available by ride-hailing applications (e.g., knowing your location or knowing driver information) and the presence of a panic button. The value given to information also increases if a person feels insecure in the streets, in a public transit station or in public transit. People who perceive higher insecurity in the streets have increased positive perceptions of the possibility of travelling without transfers. We also find that women are 64.4% less likely to share ride-hailing trips (pooling) and 2.14 times more likely to share details of their trips through their cellphones.
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This paper provides a narrative review of the literature that addresses the connection between women’s reproductive health and women’s economic activity. Women’s reproductive health, gender equality and decent work, are all part of the Sustainable Development Goals and this review highlights how these Goals are interconnected. The review focuses on the relationship between fertility and women’s work and provides a detailed discussion of the academic literature that identifies the causal effect of fertility on changes in female labor force participation. Fertility is captured by timing, spacing and number of children, and career advancement, job quality, and hours worked are addressed on the work side. The review contrasts the fertility-work nexus for low-, middle- and high-income countries separately, recognizing national income per capita as a moderator of the effect of fertility on female labor force participation. In low-income countries, where labor force participation is for the most part in the informal sector, women must adopt their own strategies for balancing child rearing and labor force participation, such as selection of job type, relying on other women in the household for childcare, and birth spacing to limit infants in their care. In middle-income countries, women juggle child rearing and labor force participation with the overarching issue of income inequality, and early childbearing and lone motherhood perpetuate poverty. For women in high-income countries, social protection policies can assist women in managing the balance of childrearing and work, but these policies do not address underlying issues of gender inequality. Despite these policies, career advancement is interrupted by childbearing. As the relationship between fertility and women’s work varies by income per capita across countries, polices that support women in achieving balance in their desired family size and accessing decent work varies across countries.
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The majority—96%—of sexual crime on railways is high-volume and of medium–low seriousness: principally non-penetrative assault, public indecency and indecent exposure. Most (81%) of these offences take place on trains, trams or station platforms, and 35% of all sexual offences are committed on the London Underground system, mainly on trains. More serious offences—penetrative assault and rape—tend to occur in station buildings. Detection rates were lower for offences committed on trains, trams and platforms than elsewhere at railway stations. They were also lower in the British Transport Police London and South subdivisions, a likely reflection of the high levels of sexual offences compared with police resources there and also of the higher incidence of less serious offences that tend to occur on trains, where reporting of offences is more difficult. Fewer offences were reported to British Transport Police officers, railway staff and other police officers in the London and South areas. Detection rates were lower for less serious sexual offences, partly because they occur on trains and at certain, often busy, times of day. The ways in which sexual offences were reported had an important effect on detection when controlling for offence type, time of day, type of offence and subdivision. There was a hierarchy of detection rates, with offences reported to British Transport Police officers the likeliest to be detected. Those reported to railway staff had rather lower detection rates, with police officers from territorial police forces like the Metropolitan Police Force detecting few cases still. Reports telephoned in by victims directly fared far worse, and those communicated by victims using email, text or social media had the lowest detection rates of all. It is possible that the manner in which victims choose to report offences also depends on their perceptions of how likely it is that police will make an arrest, so that reporting medium is a ‘marker’ for offence solvability. Reporting medium is an important factor affecting rail sex crime solvability. It would be better for detection outcomes if more sexual offences were reported to police officers, particularly BTP officers or railway staff. Detection rates could be elevated if there were improved means for victims to report crimes on trains in transit so that, where possible, offenders could be intercepted by officers either while still on trains or when they alight. This would be less feasible on the trains in the central London Underground, where travel time between stations is short. Equally, visible CCTV to deter and covert CCTV to identify offenders in the act on trains where there is a high incidence of sexual offending may also offer potential to boost detections—accepting limitations on crowded trains, such as London commuter trains and the Underground at rush hours. Clearly, a solution to such offences on overcrowded trains would be more coaches or more trains, depending on the routes involved. Additional CCTV equipment might be usefully installed on staircases and escalators prone to penetrative assaults.
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Feminist criminology needs to renovate concepts based explicitly on the experiences of mainly white women in the global North. It also needs to globalize its research agendas and enhance its conceptual horizons, to include the distinctively different gendered patterns of crime and violence that occur across the global South and North, and not only during peacetime but also war and conflict. The chapter takes two issues—violence against women during war and civil conflict and innovative approaches to preventing violence from the global South—to illustrate how feminist criminology can contribute to Southern criminology’s project of democratizing knowledge transfer between the global North and South.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings from a study commissioned by the British Transport Police and the Department for Transport for England and Wales concerning sexual offences and harassment on public transport worldwide. Specifically, it aims to explore the prevalence of such behaviours, through a review of existing survey and interview data regarding women and girls’ experiences. Design/methodology/approach A rapid evidence assessment (REA) was used, the function of which is to: search the literature as comprehensively as possible within given time constraints; collate descriptive outlines of the available evidence on a topic and critically appraise it; sift out studies of poor quality; and provide an overview of the evidence. Findings It was found that prevalence rates range from 15 to 95 per cent, with the UK having the lowest rates. Emerging economies had higher rates of harassment and assault, which may relate to differing cultural and gender norms, where public space is regarded as a male domain. Research limitations/implications A REA is not a full systematic review, differing in the scope and depth of the searches and depending almost exclusively on electronic databases, not accompanied by searching journals by hand. Practical implications More research of high methodological rigour needs to be carried out on prevalence rates of sexual harassment and offending on public transport worldwide. The high prevalence rates found suggest the need for more work around the area of interventions to curtail offending in this setting. The findings suggest that emerging economies, in particular, need to do more to address the problem of sexual harassment and assault on public transport. More fundamentally, cultural norms around women’s roles in society need to be addressed and challenged. Originality/value Women may become “transit captive” and socially excluded if they are afraid to travel on public transport and do not have access to private transport. This would be an unacceptable situation which must be addressed by transport authorities and police.
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Objetivo: Documentar frecuencia y tipos de acoso en la calle (AC) y la asociación entre experiencias de AC y percepción de cohesión social (CS). Material y métodos: Análisis de encuesta a mujeres que solicitan servicios en clínicas de la Secretaría Salud del Gobierno de la Ciudad de México. Resultados: 62.8% reportó algún tipo de AC el mes previo a la encuesta; aquéllas con experiencias de AC reportaron índices significativamente menores de CS (b = -0.46; IC95%: -0.69, -0.22). Conclusiones: Reducir el AC puede tener implicaciones importantes para mejorar la percepción de CS y la seguridad de las mujeres en la Ciudad de México.
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This article focuses on the use of a university sculpture garden, the renaming of streets, and advice about the use of public space in order to teach the intersection of gender theory with spatial theory. This article outlines methods for teaching gender and spatial theory to international and multidisciplinary bachelor’s and master’s students in English at a German technical university. Most of the students had not learned gender or spatial theory prior to the course. A review of the course syllabus is included, and interactive teaching methods are outlined for the writings of three scholars: Elizabeth Grosz, Henri Lefebvre, and Dolores Hayden. Three intertwined aspects of campus life: its student life, its architecture, and its outdoor sculpture are brought into conversation with those theorists. Students learn the history of their campus buildings, outdoor spaces and artwork, along with how university spaces, place naming, and storytelling all affect their educational and individual experiences. By interacting with and analyzing examples of campus architecture, urban space, and outdoor sculpture, students discover how spatial and gender theories function in everyday life. However, students were more convinced that living gendered interactions affected everyday life, and less convinced that static gender representations such as the sculpture garden or street naming impacted gender ideas and perceptions.
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This article argues that there is a need to address how policy measures, such as, gendered segregation of space in public transport, reconfigure gender relations in such spaces. On the basis of a small survey, personal observations and blogs published online, it is suggested that new areas of gendered confusions and exclusions in the use of the Delhi Metro are sharply emerging in response to reservation of a coach for women. These confusions and exclusions are giving rise to notions of legitimate and non-legitimate gendering of spaces, which allow men to make new claims on public space. Notions such as these derive from entrenched ideas about overcrowding and differential needs. Such contestations deny women an unambiguous right to the reserved space and also undermine their capacity for negotiating for such rights. It is argued that these are emerging concerns that need to be addressed in a more proactive manner.
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Feminists have long known that a woman's confidence, sense of possibility, aspirations, and personal growth depend on their ability to be mobile. Yet gender-based violence and sexual harassment against women commuters greatly limit those freedoms. How then should cities adapt in order increase women's equal access to mobility? To address this question, this article looks at the case of Mexico City, investigating how women pursue mobility despite hostile and violent conditions that immobilize them. Based on women's testimonies, comments made on online debate forums, and surveys among women commuters in Mexico City, this article maps the ways women cope with violence and harassment on public transportation. The analysis also pays particular attention to how women's coping strategies are restructured through state interventions, including women-only transportation. The data reveals that gender-based violence in Mexico City's public transportation limits women's mobility and reinforces gender inequality. It also shows, however, that under the right circumstances women-only transportation can be used as a place to create a rights-based movement. The article concludes that Mexico City is an example where women-only transportation has played a role in changing the traditional gender norms which have reinforced violence against women commuters.
The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-cultural Theory of Urban Social MovementsAcceso a la justicia para las mujeres ví de violencia en el Distrito Federal', conference paper presented by the Director of INMUJERES
  • Castells
  • Manuel
Castells, Manuel (1983) The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements, Berkeley: University of California Press Duncan, Nancy (ed.) (1996) Bodyspace: Destabilizing Geographies of Gender and Sexuality, London: Routledge Mí Camarena, Martha Lucia (2009) 'Acceso a la justicia para las mujeres ví de violencia en el Distrito Federal', conference paper presented by the Director of INMUJERES, Camara de Diputados Federal, 9 July
La discriminación y violencia contra las mujeres en el transporte publico de la Ciudad de Mexico
  • Zermeño Núñez Fabiola
  • Elizabeth C Martha
  • Plácido Ríos
  • Duncan Nancy
Acceso a la justicia para las mujeres víctimas de violencia en el Distrito Federal
  • Mícher Camarena
  • Martha Lucia