Self-introduction, background, and interest in transport and gender
For a long time, transport was seen as gender neutral - asphalt, bridges, railways, engineering. It was considered purely technical. But mobility is not neutral. It shapes who can access jobs, schools, healthcare, markets, and ultimately, who can shape their own life. What struck me early in my career was that the world invests heavily in improving education and health outcomes for women and girls, and rightly so, but we often forget that without safe, affordable, reliable transport, neither women nor men can fully benefit from those investments. Mobility is the invisible or not so invisible connector and enabler of human capital. When it fails, opportunity collapses. I was also struck by another inequality: transport is one of the most male-dominated sectors globally, yet often among the better-paid ones. If we are serious about improving both the quantity and the quality of jobs available to women, we cannot ignore infrastructure sectors like transport.
Progress in this space is often slow. When a transport company hires 50 women drivers for the first time, it can take years of preparation, training, licensing, adjusting workplace norms, running social campaigns to shift perceptions to demystify perceptions about the un/suitability of jobs for women. From the outside, onboarding 50 women drivers or engineers may seem small. But when a large employer makes that first move, it sends a powerful signal. It shows that change is possible.
That effort - and seeing stakeholders motivated and invested, and the demonstration effect of these seemingly small steps - is what keeps me motivated. My entry into transport as a gender specialist was not intentional at the beginning. At the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), I was assigned as a gender specialist to cover infrastructure sectors. That is when I realized how, compared to other sectors, this topic had been neglected in transport - despite the sector’s enabling role in advancing human capital and job creation. I also saw significant knowledge and analytics gaps: we needed to start with the basic “why it matters” before tackling the practical “how”. This was both exciting and challenging. Since then - almost 15 years now – I have worked across infrastructure sectors, including transport. Later, continuing with the same sector in the World Bank was an intentional career choice.
Role within the project
My work sits at the intersection of transport policy and projects, labor markets, and gender equality. At its core, it is about asking a simple question: who benefits from mobility systems and who does not? We look at how women and men use transport differently. Across countries, women often rely more on public transport and walking, make more complex “trip chains” because of unpaid care responsibilities, and face higher risks of harassment and violence. These realities rarely shape how systems are designed. Promoting women (and girls) in transport means integrating these realities from the beginning, when policies are designed, infrastructure is planned, and services are operated. It also means addressing workforce barriers so that women are not only users of transport systems but also planners, engineers, drivers, and decision-makers within them. Importantly, this work cannot sit only within transport ministries. It requires collaboration with labor, social protection, education, and private sector actors.
Self-paced e-learning course on Gender Equality in Transportation
When we developed this self-paced Gender Equality in Transportation course five years ago, there was no freely available, self-paced foundational training that explained not only why gender matters in transport, but how to address it and who benefits from doing so. Together with UN Women, we wanted to fill that gap. The course was designed to be practical and accessible. It explains how mobility barriers affect women’s life chances, but it also provides concrete examples of what can be done from safer station design to employment strategies. Although several years old, the course continues to be widely used. Hundreds of practitioners, transport providers, and gender specialists have taken the course and received certification, and the enrollments continue up until now. That tells me that the appetite for this conversation is growing. One key lesson from developing the course was this: many professionals had simply never been asked to look at transport through a gender lens. Once they do, they begin to see the sector differently and that shift in perspective can be transformative.
Most impressive gender project or initiatives
One particularly meaningful initiative was supporting Azerbaijan in reforming its labor code. During a transport project visit, we learned that women were legally prohibited from working in hundreds of occupations, many in transport and infrastructure. After analyzing the legislation, we found nearly 700 restrictions, including bans on women working underground as locomotive engineers or driving certain types of buses. These rules were originally intended to protect women’s health but had become outdated and discriminatory. Over three years, we worked with the government to build the case for reform - economically, legally, and from a business perspective. We also relied heavily on evidence, including occupational health research, to show that removing the restrictions would not pose risks. In 2022-23, the government lifted all job and night work restrictions. Legal reform alone is not enough. We then worked with state-owned enterprises to address “soft barriers” - workplace conditions, facilities, retention practices. Because true change happens not only in legislation, but in daily work environments.
This work directly supports the World Bank Group’s Jobs agenda. It strengthens policy and regulatory frameworks by eliminating discriminatory laws; improves foundational labor market conditions by enabling women to access new employment opportunities and contribute to growth; and advances private-sector development by allowing firms to recruit from the full national talent pool rather than a legally restricted subset, creating a more efficient and inclusive labor market that attracts investment and fosters innovation.
Another recent initiative we led -which was in fact funded by the Government of Japan through the Quality Infrastructure Investment (QII) Partnership, is the She Drives Change: A Toolkit for Redefining Opportunities for Women in Transport. The toolkit provides transport professionals and policymakers with a practical, structured approach to closing gender gaps in mobility, employment, and entrepreneurship across urban transport, roads, rail, aviation, maritime, and economic corridors. Its distinctive value lies in its granular, sub-sector guidance. What works in maritime does not necessarily work in aviation or urban transport.
The toolkit offers tailored interventions and indicators for each sub-sector, drawing on World Bank operational experience and global case studies. A living digital version (shedriveschange.worldbank.org) is regularly updated with new evidence and examples. Strong uptake - internally and externally - reflects its relevance, with teams actively using it to shape transport projects and policies.
We are grateful to the Government of Japan for its generous support to make this toolkit happen. To explore this and other projects, policy engagement, and analytics on gender and transport, visit the World Bank Gender and Transport page and also check out the results brief, She Drives Change: Empowering Women in Transport.
Global barriers to women’s mobility
Across countries women face disproportionate barriers in mobility and employment in the sector. No matter where you look, data from the ground consistently shows that the barriers affecting people’s mobility - accessibility, availability, affordability, acceptability, safety and security -disproportionally impact women. These barriers are often rooted in social norms, e.g., unpaid care work, disproportionate household responsibilities, and expectations about where women “should” or “should not” go and work. While their scope and severity vary across contexts, no country is immune: levels of economic development or other national indicators do not necessarily shield societies from these challenges.
When transport systems fail women, the consequences are significant. Girls miss school. Women limit their job choices. Access to healthcare becomes more difficult. Economic participation declines. If women had equal access to mobility, the benefits would extend far beyond individuals. Families, businesses, and entire economies would gain. Studies show that increasing women’s labor force participation could add trillions to global GDP.
There is no magic bullet -lasting impact comes from combining mutually reinforcing actions. This includes strong leadership and dedicated teams with clear mandates and resources to institutionalize change; the use of sex-disaggregated mobility data to guide evidence-based planning and accountability; more reliable and accessible services, including, enforcing schedules, and improving first- and last-mile connections; and stronger regulation and anti-harassment measures embedded in service agreements. It also requires training frontline staff to respond effectively to harassment, investing in safer and more inclusive public spaces with adequate lighting and facilities, engaging communities to challenge harmful norms, increasing women’s representation across the transport workforce, and continuously monitoring and evaluating progress to adapt and scale what works.
Encouragingly, change is happening. We see safer transport systems being designed, workforce participation increasing in some contexts, and policymakers recognizing that gender equality in transport is not a niche issue - it is a development and economic and business imperative.
Message to Japan
Transport inequalities are often invisible. But once you begin to look for them, they become clear - in who can access jobs, who feels safe commuting, and who is represented in the workforce shaping our mobility systems.
When transport systems reflect the needs of diverse users, they perform better. When women participate more fully in the transport and space workforce, talent pools expand, innovation accelerates, and entirely new markets open. Closing gender gaps is not only about inclusion - it is also or mainly about unlocking human capital and creating quality jobs across engineering, operations, technology, data, and infrastructure.
My message would be the following: addressing gender in mobility is not only about fairness - it is about efficiency, sustainability, and economic resilience. It is about job creation, workforce expansion, and building a future-ready transport sector that draws on the full potential of society.
Japan has the technical expertise, industrial leadership, and institutional strength to lead in this space - demonstrating how gender equality can power innovation, competitiveness, and long-term economic growth.