Engender blog

3 Steps to Achieving Primary Prevention in Public Transport

We’ve launched our new series of mini-briefings shining a spotlight on how to achieve a primary prevention approach in different areas of public policy with this new briefing highlighting why safe and accessible public transport is key to gender equality and preventing violence against women.

Public transport isn’t just a matter of convenience; for many women, it’s a lifeline that opens doors to education, employment, and essential services, all of which impact gender equality.

However, Scotland’s public transport system fails to serve women’s distinct travel needs, limiting their access to these opportunities and reinforcing gender inequality. Without changes, these limitations keep women from fully participating in society, impacting everything from their financial independence to safety and personal well-being.

When we talk about primary prevention of VAWG, we’re talking about preventing this violence from happening in the first place. Evidence shows the best way to do this is to tackle the root cause of this violence: gender inequality.  Therefore, creating a safe, sustainable and accessible public transport system for everyone is essential for advancing women’s equality and preventing VAWG once and for all.

Without safe and accessible transport options, women’s access to critical economic and social opportunities is limited, reinforcing gender inequality, which ultimately enables VAWG. Women’s safety on public transport remains a significant concern and barrier to women’s mobility, due to things like lack of regular and reliable services, design of vehicles and transit points, and insufficient staffing levels.

Our new briefing highlights Three Steps Towards Achieving a Primary Prevention Approach in transport Policy

1. Women are equally and fairly represented in policy-making roles

• Improve pathways for women, particularly minoritised women, into the transport sector and career progression opportunities
• Ensure inclusive working environments in the transport sector by implementing flexible working procedures, anti-discrimination and harassment policies and women’s leadership initiatives

2. Policymakers consistently apply intersectional gender analysis in their work

• Collect intersectional gender-sensitive sex-disaggregated data on women’s travel patterns, safety and satisfaction
• Conduct Equality Impact Assessments at the outset of transport policy development to ensure this informs policy and planning decisions at all stages

3. Policymakers mainstream primary prevention in all areas of their work

• Increase opportunities for co-designing transport strategies with women, especially those with lived experience of VAWG on public transport
• Embed women’s safety considerations into transport planning, including in decisions on service provision, the design of infrastructure and staffing levels

Find out more in our new briefing here and follow us on social media to get the latest news on other briefings in the series on housing and planning, coming soon!

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