[sustran] Re: We have a major problem here, and you can help to set it right.

[Kisan Mehta]

Dear Eric and colleagues,

Reason for less participation by females may be our networking becoming too technical and too location specific. Transportation has many more faces than technical and economic.   Discussions in the internet hover around these aspects.

In our discussions we forget that social and psychological aspects are more important. In the poor countries the feeling of being alienated by resorting to high sounding technological aspects makes the common man and there women ignoring the issues.  They become victims of the tyranny of technology and economics. 

Inthe male dominated government that, we have developed and are voraciously guarding, all high posts are occupied by men denying access to women.  

In the poor countries, in choosing the  modes of traffic for travel, it is the man's preference that gets higher priority. If stricken with no money, the money will be used by the man for his choice of mode of traffic while the woman is left to lower mode and somtimes to walking.  If the family is taking the first car, it is normal to  register in the man's name and he is given sole charge though the costs are debited to the family income.  

Participation, I am afraid, will most likely remain male dominated even if all of us introduce two female potential participants.  Can we change the focus to more social aspect which in fact is the base for transportation. Best wishes.

Kisan Mehta
Rwel: 00 91 22 2414 9688       
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: eric.britton at ecoplan.org 
  To: WorldTransport at yahoogroups.com 
  Cc: Sustran-discuss at jca.ax.apc.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 9:37 PM
  Subject: [sustran] We have a major problem here,and you can help to set it right.


  Tuesday, August 10, 2004, Paris, France, Europe



   Dear Colleagues,



  We have a major problem here, and you can help to set it right.



  I have just inspected the listing of the hundreds of us who are sharing our information and thoughts on these matters of sustainable development and sustainable mobility more specifically, and I note a dangerous anomaly.  We are more than 90% male in this forum



  Is this a trivial fact of 21st century life? Unavoidable?  Neither.  In fact, it has long been my belief that one of the main reasons why we have failed over all these years to create better and softer mobility systems in our cities is that we have de facto turned over the job to taskforces almost entirely of men, and not only that men who went to college to learn how to move volumes fast and 'efficiently' in rather undifferentiated ways.  We have, I have to say, created an almost all male transportation paradigm.



  We need help and we're lucky -- it is right at hand.  So let's start with this forum and let me ask each of you to take the time to send me the names and emails of at least two capable female colleagues whom we can bring into our considerations and achieve the kind of balance which has been needed behind the wise decision making in our field for far too long. 



  Incidentally, if we can find ways to tempt in people with backgrounds that extend beyond the usual limits of the traditionally dominant fields, and in particular in such areas as cultural anthropology, behavioral psychology, community relations, and public health, I think we would be able to make real progress.  (Of course we have to make it interesting for them, but it's my theory that once we open these doors they will figure out how to do this for themselves.  And change us all in the process. 



  (I wonder how many of you are going to accept this challenge. ;-)



  Eric Britton



  The Commons: Increasing the uncomfort zone for hesitant administrators and politicians; pioneering new concepts for business, entrepreneurs, activists, community groups, and local government; and through our joint efforts, energy and personal choices, placing them and ourselves firmly on the path to a more sustainable and more just society.






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