An Investigation of Gender Transport Poverty Among Young Middle-Class Women in Karachi

Abstract

Although Karachi is an economic hub of Pakistan it lacks a systematised public transport system. The poor quality of service leads to widespread transport poverty. This is worse for women as it sits alongside cultural and social practices which restrict women’s agency and personal mobility. owing to the prevalent local patriarchal attitudes. Little research has been conducted on how the deprivation of agency contributes to greater gender disparities in transport provision and leads to gender transport poverty.
The aim of this paper is to study the different aspects of transport poverty on women in Karachi, taking it as a representative lower-middle-income city (LMIC) in the global South, and to assess the impact of transport poverty on women's opportunities. A mixed methods approach – surveys, interviews and focus groups, autoethnography – was used to gain phenomenological insights into the everyday experiences of women while using public transport. The results show that gender transport poverty is manifest at all stages of the journey lifecycle and severely curtails women’s participation, in the labour force and life of Pakistan. The paper presents the results and a multifaceted study to understand gender transport poverty.