Where Are the Women in Transport?Gender-Smart Mobility Lessons from the 7th AAWS Congress

Dr. Roselle Leah K. Rivera delivering her plenary on gender-smart mobility at the 7th AAWS Congress, UP Open University, Los Baños, last November 7, 2025. Image from the presenter.

At the 7th Asian Association of Women's Studies (AAWS) Congress held at the University of the Philippines Open University, Los Baños, from November 6-7, 2025, Dr. Roselle Leah K. Rivera, SafeTravelPH's board chairperson, offered a timely, incisive look at gender and transport in Southeast Asia. With the theme “Empower, Sustain, and Democratize: Asian Women’s Journey at the Intersection of Change,” this gathering brought together scholars, activists, and practitioners who explore how mobility, social justice, and urban change intersect.

In her plenary address on Day 2, Dr. Rivera drew upon five years of research undertaken by SafeTravelPH, focusing on bus-reform, jeepney modernisation, cycling adoption and paratransit service quality in the Philippines--to highlight a persistent gap: women’s mobility experiences remain under-documented. She underscored that few studies present gender-disaggregated findings on travel behaviour, perceptions of safety, or access to public transport. Her argument: until we understand how women travel, we cannot fully design systems that serve them. The bias is not merely academic but operational and institutional.

Engaging the audience on women’s mobility and transport justice, Dr. Roselle Rivera fields questions during the plenary open forum. Image from the presenter.

Dr. Rivera proposed concrete steps to address this gap. She called for gender-modules to be embedded in national transport surveys, urging agencies to link digital transport data with social indicators and design participatory governance mechanisms that include women commuters and operators. According to her, this is the roadmap for shifting from infrastructure-focused planning to “gender-smart mobility planning”--a process that ensures transport innovations in Southeast Asia “truly serve everyone.” The emphasis on participatory governance signalled the importance of moving beyond tokenism to meaningful inclusion.

Her presentation resonated strongly in the context of ongoing reform in the Philippines. With public-transport modernization ongoing under the PTMP (Public Transport Modernization Program), her remarks highlighted how issues of service reliability, informal transport modes and operator consolidation also carry gendered dimensions. When women juggle caregiving, work and multi-stop trips, the design of PUVs, waiting areas, safety protocols and scheduling becomes a gender-equity issue. Her call for gender-responsive transit systems therefore dovetails with broader efforts to professionalize and modernize public-transport operations.

AAWS Congress organizers present Dr. Roselle Leah K. Rivera with a Certificate of Appreciation for her plenary on women’s mobility in Southeast Asia. Image from the presenter.

In sum, Dr. Rivera’s contribution at the AAWS Congress reminded us that transport reform is not gender-neutral. The intersections of mobility, gender, and urban governance demand that planners, operators, and policymakers intentionally integrate women’s voices, needs, and travel patterns into every stage of system redesign. In doing so, we move closer to sustainable, inclusive mobility systems--and to a Philippines where public transport serves all its citizens equitably.