I don't usually take transit, preferring to walk the hour to and from the campus. This morning, with an early medical appointment downtown, I found myself on the subway about 8:30 a.m. Looking around the jam-packed subway car, I noticed that women outnumbered men by a factor of 2 to 1. (I actually counted among the people I could see.) Glancing at subway platforms, especially at the more crowded stations, I noticed the same gender disparity.
Is this difference merely a random occurence?
Do men travel earlier to work?
Does public transit attract more women than men?
If there is an explanation that accounts for this difference, it would undoubtedly reveal some interesting insights into the nature and dynamics of either the gendered workplace, or the gendered (perhaps classed?) nature of urban transportation, or both.
[Technorati tags: gender | public transit | ttc | subway]
1 comment:
This is just conjecture, but perhaps part of the reason is because it is more culturally conditioned for boys, and men to save for, and purchase their own vehicles. I suspect an interest and ownership of a car, and to be in control of the means of transportation is strongly linked to our constructions of masculinity.
Erin
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