Chapter 1: Introduction: Unlocking the Potential for Women in Transport

Transportation costs, safety concerns, and limited access disproportionately affect women, hindering their ability to work, attend school, and access health care and other essential services. 

Overcoming these challenges could significantly boost women’s economic participation and contributions to gross domestic product (GDP) while enhancing human capital for themselves and for future generations.

Addressing mobility barriers also supports transport decarbonization goals. Women rely more on public transport and walking than men, making it essential to improve public transport affordability, accessibility, and safety to retain the green dividends of women’s current travel patterns and encourage others—primarily men—to shift from private vehicle use. Addressing mobility barriers affecting women and men differently can also benefit transport service providers by increasing ridership and improving transport service outcomes.

Women are significantly underrepresented in the global transport sector workforce, accounting for approximately 12 percent of transportation and storage workers worldwide (Kurshitashvili et al. 2025). Women’s participation varies by subsector. Globally, women comprise only 5 percent of workers in land transport, 10 percent in water transport, 21 percent in warehousing and transportation support activities, and 38 percent in aviation. 

Barriers to women’s participation in the transport sector are present within each stage of the employment life cycle, including in relation to women’s attraction, recruitment, and retention; policies and practices in the workplace; and leadership and career progression. 

Regulatory frameworks also hinder women’s participation by restricting access to specific jobs in transport. For example, women are legally prohibited from working in specific transport jobs in 12 countries, 20 countries restrict women from night work, and 45 economies ban women from hazardous jobs (World Bank 2024). 

These restrictions limit employment opportunities and reinforce outdated stereotypes about the suitability of transport roles for women, leading to inefficiencies and talent misallocation, which erode employers’ ability to improve decision-making, innovation, and financial performance.

Operations that address the constraints faced by women in transport offer both intrinsic and instrumental benefits. Intrinsically, they empower individuals, especially women, by enhancing agency, freedom, and choice in mobility, and ensuring equitable access to jobs and essential services, which fosters personal growth and improves quality of life. Instrumentally, user-centric transport systems could increase efficiency, revenue, and user satisfaction by attracting a more diverse customer base and improving accessibility and could boost women’s economic contributions to GDP. They also support environmental sustainability through low-carbon solutions and operational efficiency, while boosting company performance and alleviating labor shortages. 

Ultimately, incorporating women’s considerations into transport operations is key to building efficient and sustainable mobility systems. Box 1.1 emphasizes the benefits of addressing the constraints women face in transport operations.

Figure 1.1 presents a comprehensive framework that conceptualizes how transportation systems interact with country-, institutional-, and individual-level factors to shape disproportionate barriers for women. This framework helps identify entry points for interventions that ddress disparities between women and men in mobility, employment, and entrepreneurship in transport sector operations, ultimately improving access to economic opportunities and essential services for women as well as men.

FIGURE 1.1: Conceptual framework for identifying interventions in transport sector operations that addresses disparaties between women and men in mobility, employment, and entrepreneurship

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The framework is structured around three key dimensions: environmental factors in the transport ecosystem that shape barriers affecting women and men differently; barriers that span mobility, employment, and entrepreneurship; and access to opportunities that can be achieved by addressing these challenges. Together, these dimensions offer a comprehensive approach to understanding and tackling the unique challenges women face in the sector, along with the benefits of overcoming them.

The framework is structured around three key dimensions: environmental factors in the transport ecosystem that shape barriers affecting women and men differently; barriers that span mobility, employment, and entrepreneurship; and access to opportunities that can be achieved by addressing these challenges. Together, these dimensions offer a comprehensive approach to understanding and tackling the unique challenges women face in the sector, along with the benefits of overcoming them.

Transport Sector Ecosystem

This first dimension addresses the transport sector ecosystem and the various environmental factors that shape access opportunities for women and men. These factors can be divided into country, institutional, and individual characteristics:

Country

This encompasses the national environment, including income and regional disparities, as well as the normative, policy, and legal frameworks that can either constrain or facilitate women’s access to economic opportunities and essential services. Policies and legal frameworks can either support or hinder women’s access to opportunities, including within the transport sector. For instance, in some countries, laws restrict women from certain transport jobs or roles deemed hazardous or from working at night, under the pretext of protection.

Institutional

This refers to the local environment at the community level, which includes institutions that can either support or hinder women’s mobility and economic activities. The community context—whether urban or rural—can impose constraints that influence women’s decisions about if, when, where, and how to travel. This level also includes institutions responsible for decision-making and planning, particularly those that may perpetuate or challenge outdated biases in transport systems, ultimately impacting women’s mobility and employment opportunities.

Individual

This focuses on individual characteristics, such as gender, age, race and ethnicity, personal income, disability, or education, just to name a few, as well as factors related to power and agency, including capabilities, aspirations, and self-confidence. For instance, the needs of a woman with a disability living in a rural part of a country with poor public transportation will be qualitatively different from those of a nondisabled woman in a city with at least some options for urban transportation. In a similar vein, an elderly, low-income man with limited mobility would have more acutely pronounced mobility needs than an able-bodied young man with the resources to afford private transportation.

Barriers

The second dimension addresses three key barriers that arise from differences between men and women in transport sector operations: mobility, formal employment, and entrepreneurship. These barriers interact with the contextual country, institutional and individual factors to determine how women and men utilize transport systems, pursue employment opportunities, and engage in entrepreneurship. Ultimately, these dynamics influence women’s behaviors, self-efficacy, opportunities, and ultimately, outcomes.

The Mobility Barrier

The first barrier relates to mobility, which encompasses the challenges women and men face based on their circumstances, needs, and choices. Mobility refers to the ability to move freely and safely within one’s environment, facilitated by accessible, secure, and affordable transport infrastructure and services that cater to their specific needs and enable full participation in social, economic, and civic activities. The mobility barrier can be categorized into five areas, irrespective of transport mode or trip nature:

Availability

This refers to the connectivity and coverage of the transport system. In rural areas, the availability of transport infrastructure (for example, roads and pathways) may be more critical, while in urban settings, the availability of transport services (for example, public transportation, shared transport) is more salient. Often, public transport either does not serve any internal routes in the communities, is only available at certain times—only during daytime, for example—or the service is excessively infrequent. This results in women walking long distances or taking informal modes of transport to cover feeder roads, which can be expensive and unsafe. A lack of evening transport options means that many women working in the service sector are less likely to take night-shift jobs.

Affordability

This encompasses travel costs and the extent to which individuals can afford to travel when and where they want. It includes both direct (financial) costs and the opportunity costs of potential consumption that must be forgone for mandatory trips. Women’s complex daily trips, including those undertaken for caretaking purposes, take time away from other activities, such as productive work or leisure, and result in higher travel costs. Safety concerns disproportionally impact low-income women who often prioritize safety over affordability and who are willing to pay more for transport modes that provide a greater sense of safety. These additional travel costs mean that women pay disproportionally more than men for caretaking, safety, and other reasons.

Accessibility (including physical accessibility)

Accessibility encompasses not only the ease with which individuals can use the transport system but also the spatial interaction between mobility and land use. While physical accessibility considers how different individuals—such as able-bodied persons, parents with young children, pregnant women, the elderly, or individuals with disabilities—navigate the transport system, a broader definition of accessibility accounts for how land use and the proximity of services impact mobility. Evidence shows that closeness to essential services is particularly relevant for women’s time poverty and overall mobility. While both dimensions are important, this toolkit primarily focuses on physical accessibility.

Acceptability (social and cultural)

Acceptability in transport refers to the degree to which transportation services, infrastructure, and policies are socially, culturally, and behaviorally suitable for different user groups. It encompasses both physical factors—such as comfort, safety, and reliability—and social norms, which shape public attitudes, perceptions, and expectations about who can access and use various transport modes. Acceptability also considers the influence of societal norms on mobility choices, including differing judgments and behavioral reactions to men and women using public and private transport systems. Ensuring high acceptability means addressing barriers that limit equitable access and fostering an environment where all individuals can travel freely and safely.

Safety and personal security

“Safety,” for the purposes of this toolkit, refers to infrastructure deficiencies on roads, stations, and trains that could lead to accidents or risky settings, such as potholes in roads, big gaps between the train and the platform, or unsafe staircases; while “personal security” refers to vulnerability to sexual harassment, physical or verbal assault, robbery with use of force, and other crimes. This toolkit addresses both safety and personal security concerns.

The Employment Barrier

The formal employment barrier includes the many challenges in creating and expanding job opportunities for women across various skill levels while attracting and retaining diverse talent. This barrier can be categorized into four areas aimed at enhancing equitable employment opportunities in the transport sector:

Outreach and recruitment:

This involves the processes and strategies used to draw both female and male talent into the transport sector. It includes methods for raising awareness and generating interest among potential candidates, emphasizing the importance of fostering an applicant pool composed of both men and women that reflects the community’s demographics and skill sets.

Human resource (HR) policies and practices:

This refers to policies supporting flexible work, childcare access, and safe, respectful work environments, which are critical for women’s retention.

Career progression:

This category focuses on the factors that influence an employee’s ability to grow within the organization and their decision to remain long-term. It encompasses access to professional development opportunities, mentorship, promotion pathways, and employee engagement initiatives.

Leadership:

This dimension includes the structures and dynamics that guide organizational management. It emphasizes the representation of diverse individuals in leadership roles, which is essential for shaping organizational culture and influencing strategic direction.

The Entrepreneurship Barrier

The entrepreneurship barrier refers to the challenges women face in accessing opportunities in the transport sector, hindering their ability to start and grow businesses. This barrier can be categorized into three areas that enhance economic participation and foster equitable job opportunities:

Business skills and advisory services:

This focuses on equipping women with the right training and mentorship that can enhance their ability to navigate entrepreneurship and leverage opportunities in transport-related businesses.

Access to finance:

This addresses difficulties in obtaining the funding and financial resources necessary for women seeking to enter and grow within transport-related industries. It includes issues such as limited access to credit, lack of collateral, and biases in lending practices that disproportionately affect women and marginalized entrepreneurs.

Access to markets and linkages:

This pertains to supporting women entrepreneurs in building networks and market connections—including access to trade fairs, business associations, and transport sector partnerships—that can help them scale their businesses and improve supply chain integration.

Transport sector projects play a crucial role in fostering women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment by addressing their financial and skills constraints and access to market barriers. Transport investments can unlock new economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs and contribute to broader economic growth. Additionally, economic corridor and trade facilitation initiatives offer strategic entry points for reducing financial barriers faced by women entrepreneurs. These projects can improve access to financial services by partnering with financial institutions to establish banking solutions at transport hubs and border crossings, enabling women traders to secure funding, process transactions, and grow their businesses.

Transport operations can also strengthen public procurement by including provisions that encourage women-owned businesses to participate in supply chains and access contracts in transport infrastructure development and maintenance. Providing business training, financial literacy programs, and mentorship further equips women with the skills needed to scale their enterprises.

Beyond financial access, transport projects also play a direct role in creating safer and more accessible mobility options for women entrepreneurs. Reliable transport networks improve last-mile connectivity; enhance public transport security; and ensure that women can safely reach markets, financial institutions, and business hubs—critical factors for sustaining and expanding their businesses.

A robust results chain is crucial for effectively addressing gender disparities in mobility, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities within transport operations. The World Bank Group (WBG) has placed significant emphasis on measuring results to guarantee the effectiveness and accountability of its gender equality initiatives, as highlighted in the WBG Gender Strategy for 2024–2030 (WBG 2024). By identifying gender gaps, implementing targeted actions, and monitoring outcomes, teams can design more impactful interventions. Since 2017, the World Bank has utilized a "Gender Tag" for its operations, which follows three key steps:

1. Identifying Gaps (Analysis)
Task teams must first identify a relevant gender gap within the project’s context. This gap could relate to unequal access to mobility, employment, and/or entrepreneurship. For instance, in transport projects, this might include women’s mobility constraints and limited access to transportation, and underrepresentation in the transport workforce.

2. Implementing Actions to Address Gaps (Actions)
Concrete actions must be outlined to address the identified gaps. These actions should be integrated into the project’s core components and aim for sustainable impact. For example, in transport operations, these actions might include increasing safety measures for women in public transportation or creating employment opportunities for women in the sector.

3. Monitoring and Measuring Outcomes (M&E)
To track progress, measurable indicators at output and outcome levels are suggested to monitor how effectively the project closes the gap(s). They are incorporated into the project’s results framework to ensure accountability.