Attracting and Retaining Women in the Transportation Industry
Author: Jodi Godfrey, MSCE, Robert L. Bertini, Ph.D., San Jose State University, Mineta Transportation Institute
Date: February 2019
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Abstract: This study synthesized previously conducted research and identified additional research needed to attract, promote, and retain women in the transportation industry. This study will detail major findings and subsequent recommendations, based on the annotated bibliography, of the current atmosphere and the most successful ways to attract and retain young women in the transportation industry in the future. Oftentimes, it is perception that drives women away from the transportation industry, as communal goals are not emphasized in transportation. Men are attracted to agentic goals, whereas women tend to be more attracted to communal goals (Diekman et al., 2011). While this misalignment of goals has been found to be one reason that women tend to avoid the transportation industry, there are ways to highlight the goal congruity processes that contribute to transportation engineering, planning, operations, maintenance, and decisions—thus attracting the most talented individuals, regardless of gender. Other literature has pointed to the lack of female role models and mentors as one reason that it is difficult to attract women to transportation (Dennehy & Dasgupta, 2017). It is encouraging to know that attention is being placed on the attraction and retention of women in all fields, as it will increase the probability that the best individual is attracted to the career that best fits their abilities, regardless of gender.
Women in the Greater New York Transportation Industry: A Baseline Study for Future Benchmarking of Women in Leadership Roles
Author: WTS-Greater New York
Date: March 2019
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Executive Summary: Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) is working to investigate, expose and mitigate the glass ceiling effect on women in transportation. The goal of WTS is to create opportunities for women to shatter the “glass ceiling” through educational and professional development programs, networking opportunities, and strong and effective mentorship programs.
In 2016, the WTS Greater New York (WTS-GNY) chapter, which includes New York and New Jersey, created a Glass Ceiling Committee (GCC) to review and quantify the challenges faced by women in their region. The WTS-GNY GCC is comprised of women from private sector companies and public entities. This report summarizes the results of a literature review and survey of relevant demographic profiles, policies, and programs and provides case studies and recommended practices.
In 2017, WTS-GNY sent a survey to public government entities, public corporations, private corporations, and non-profit organizations in the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan area.
TRB Research Snaps
Per the TRB website,
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TRB's TRID Database
The
TRID Database contains more than 1.25 million records of references to books, technical reports, conference proceedings, and journal articles in the field of transportation research.