The low level of women’s participation in APEC member economies’ transport workforce has significant social and economic costs and can limit the development of sustainable, resilient, and inclusive transport. This project focuses on gender mainstreaming in the transport sector to improve gender equality in the transport workforce.

The goal of this project was to increase visibility into existing challenges and barriers to gender equality in the transport workforce, evaluate existing policies and initiatives carried out across APEC economies, and identify best practices as well as policy gaps to address in the coming years. The results found working conditions in the sector to be a key a barrier, including a lack of work-life balance and the gender wage gap, and conditions in the workplace related to occupational health, hygiene safety issues, gender-based discrimination and harassment, and a dominant culture of masculinity. These challenges make it difficult to not only recruit but retain women in transport jobs.