Gender gaps in urban mobility
Journal
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
ISSN
2662-9992
Date Issued
2020
Author(s)
Laetitia Gauvin
Michele Tizzoni
Simone Piaggesi
Andrew Young
Natalia Adler
Stefaan Verhulst
Ciro Cattuto
Type
Resource Types::text::journal::journal article
Abstract
Mobile phone data have been extensively used to study urban mobility. However, studies based on gender-disaggregated large-scale data are still lacking, limiting our understanding of gendered aspects of urban mobility and our ability to design policies for gender equality. Here we study urban mobility from a gendered perspective, combining commercial and open datasets for the city of Santiago, Chile. We analyze call detail records for a large cohort of anonymized mobile phone users and reveal a gender gap in mobility: women visit fewer unique locations than men, and distribute their time less equally among such locations. Mapping this mobility gap over administrative divisions, we observe that a wider gap is associated with lower income and lack of public and private transportation options. Our results uncover a complex interplay between gendered mobility patterns, socio-economic factors and urban affordances, calling for further research and providing insights for policymakers and urban planners.