Women and children's access to the city - ITDP

This report explores the issues faced by women and children to access the city in Brazil. A very interesting analysis on the gender issues in transport.

Throughout the world, we are witnessing the growth of gender and mobility discussions, sustained by studies that seek to understand how women experience the city. Although patterns of displacement are strongly territoriality determined by the provision of public transport, they do not depend on these factors alone.
Women’s daily lives are marked by fear of urban violence and, mainly, gender violence. Harassment and sexual violence deter women from having full access to work opportunities, leisure, culture, and services available in the city. The
2014 ActionAid’s survey Cidade Segura Para Mulheres (Safe City For Women) revealed that 86% of Brazilian women had already been harassed in public space and 44% on public transport.
Inequalities in the division of domestic unpaid work imply a greater work burden for women, who accumulate the functions of family care and housekeeping. Particularly, children’s needs profoundly impact the mobility pattern of the mothers. This socially constructed role largely determines women’s travel patterns: their displacements are marked by chained trips to multiple destinations.
However, we must clarify that the access to the city can be very diverse even among women. Mobility is not gender neutral, but it is not race and income neutral either. In Brazil, urban life and vulnerability to violence are particularly challenging for black and low-income women, for whom walking and public transport play a fundamental role in the everyday experience. 
Aware of this scenario, ITDP Brazil developed the study “Women and Children’s Access to the City”, to deepen inside the challenges these women face when trying to live the city at its most. This intersectional examination was sustained by dialogues with organized civil society institutions and on the findings of a focus group research that looked into the lives of black and low-income women, mothers, users of public transport, residents of the Recife Metropolitan Area.
The qualitative research approaches issues such as the women’s vision of the city; their experience while walking and on the public transport; childcare; their relationship with public spaces; urban and gender violence; the use of the bicycle, and their image of a good city to live in.