Lina Mosshammer and Claudia Falkinger have founded a company called Punkt vor Strich that puts its finger on a sore spot in the mobility industry: gender diversity. The entrepreneurs use data to show why cars are deadlier for women and that even navigation systems are still not built for women.
At Punkt vor Strich you deal with the topic of gender and mobility. What goal are you pursuing?
Claudia Falkinger: With point before line, we create solutions that move everyone. This means, in particular, creating awareness that our current mobility system does not take all needs into account. We need mobility offers that are accessible, flexible and, above all, comfortable for as many target groups as possible.
What was the crux of the matter for you in dedicating yourself to inequalities in the mobility sector? What personal experiences led to this?
Lina Mosshammer: In 2020 we started the Women in Mobility network in Austria. The first events went great. At the first digital events we had several hundred participants from Austria and beyond. At the same time, it showed us that there is still a lot to do. Several mobility providers, from cargo bikes to e-mobility solutions, came to us with the question of how they could better integrate hitherto under-reached target groups such as women, from product development to marketing. Mobility offers are becoming more and more flexible, but at the same time they are still far from sufficiently tailored to people’s needs.
The issue of the gender data gap in particular is a major challenge. Diversity, and gender is one aspect, is unfortunately not taken into enough account in data collection. This means, for example, that the needs of women are underrepresented in the development of solutions. One example is crowdsourcing for mapping tools. Markers such as supermarkets or schools are often underrepresented because the target group making entries has less of an eye on them.
At first glance, cars are gender neutral. At second glance, not so much. According to your research, what are the differences?
Falkinger: In Austria, over 60 percent of cars are registered to men. In traditional families, it is often men who drive to work every day, while women take care of childcare and work part-time. Almost 50 percent of women, compared to 10 percent of men, work part-time. The main reason is to look after children and relatives. Nevertheless, it is women in particular who use public transport.
The vehicles themselves are also not gender-neutral in this sense. The first female crash test dummy named Eva was only introduced in 2018. The risk of suffering serious injuries in a head-on car accident is over 70 percent higher for women than men, and the risk of being killed is 17 percent higher. The first car manufacturers are already using these new dummies, but this is not yet mandatory in Europe.
Do you see any gender-specific differences in the electric cars that are now coming onto the market? Are electric cars more likely to be built for men?
Mosshammer: The disadvantages that women have in terms of safety etc. apply to combustion cars as well as to electric cars. Women tend to be more pragmatic car users. This means: You are often exposed to a double burden of employment and care work. There is little time to deal with new trends. At the same time, women have lower incomes on average. Currently, electric cars are expensive and overly heavy SUVs, but more affordable mid-range vehicles are needed.
Many people get behind the wheel of an electric car for the first time through car sharing services. According to your data, 80% of car sharing users are men. Why is the imbalance so pronounced here?
Falkinger: Flexible offers such as car sharing have the potential to offer needs-oriented mobility. This means using mobility the way you need it. At the same time, there are still high costs associated with it, security concerns or even the barrier of trying something new or registering anew every time. Access to the offers must be made easier, fit into everyday life and be better integrated into existing public transport. A nice example comes from Graz: Here the car sharing offer is linked to public transport and a child seat can optionally be booked in, so that mobility as a family is also possible.
Only 22% of employees in the European transport sector are women. Is this the main reason why mobility is so tailored to men?
Mosshammer: That definitely has an important influence. We plan for what we know. Your own perspective has a strong influence on what is taken into account. It is therefore important to create a good balance both in the planning and development teams and at the decision-making level. Of course, this doesn’t just apply to the topic of gender. It is also important to include different target groups in the process.
For a long time, men were considered “average people”. Women are often underrepresented in data and surveys. For example, if the proportion of women in a data collection is 20 percent, but then the average is used, the results for women only apply to a very limited extent. Of course, this applies to all underrepresented target groups.
Assuming that the gender ratio in the mobility sector were balanced – what would electric cars look like or function?
Falkinger: Women’s mobility is multimodal. This means they use many different means of transport. That’s why it’s even more important to look at the big picture. This is particularly important in development and communication. In cars, for example, this could be a navigation system that does not react poorly to high-pitched female voices, as is often the case today. But this can also affect the issue of safety at charging stations and ease of use.
In general, there are still a lot of question marks among the population when it comes to electric cars. But not everyone has the time or interest to deal with it. If electric cars are to be suitable for everyone, a lot more education and information is needed to make it as easy as possible to get started. There is still a lot of untapped potential here.
With their often huge fleets, companies have enormous influence on the adoption of electric cars. Is there a gender gap there too? And how could it be dissolved?
Mosshammer: Around two thirds of all new cars are company cars. Companies have a lot of leverage to shape mobility. Both the mobility mix they offer their employees and the vehicles they purchase. It is important to pay attention to the needs of employees. Women’s paths become more complex due to care tasks. You don’t drive straight to work and back home, but in between you take the children to kindergarten or school or have other errands.
And yes, more and more men are taking on more and more parts of the childcare, but of course they then face the same problems. Companies can make an important contribution through a good mobility mix.
This means offering a mobility budget per year that employees can use to organize their mobility as needed. One day the e-car from the company fleet is used, the next day perhaps the e-bike with a trailer or the bus for an appointment in the city center.
According to your data, women are 71% more likely to be injured in traffic accidents. Why is that?
Falkinger: The first female crash test dummy was only developed five years ago, but its use has yet to become widespread everywhere. Most often, small male dummies are used for women. But women are not just small men, they have a completely different body type. Unfortunately, there is still no specification, for example at EU level.
Do you already see good approaches to resolving this inequality? Which ones are promising?
Mosshammer: There is awareness of the topic. And you can already see the first results, such as diversity departments in companies or the slowly increasing proportion of women in the industry and in decision-making positions. The change can also be seen very specifically on the street, such as the child seats on the new bike sharing system in Vienna. It is recognized that more women and more diversity also bring great added value on an economic level.