In terms of the SDGs would welcome more investment from the many international agencies on this subject and look to create a more robust reporting framework – looking at the size of investments in transport projects the lack of tools and methodologies that take gender into account means that the impact of transport projects on gender is not evaluated well and the majority of gender still seems to be tick in the box. Could we put together a list where work has been successful and ideas can be transferred to other cities – maybe launch a group of leadership mayors (both men and women – I would be happy to approach Sadiq Khan from London..)..

Thank you for your great contributions. As we move into our last day, we would like to look at how we move forward in the context of the SDGs and Habitat III.

What will be needed to achieve SDG 5 and 11 to create urban environments that are truly inclusive from women and girls?

Also, I would like to add commentary to the points previously raised about including men and boys in the conversation. While it is broadly agreed this inclusion is an essential component of safe and inclusive public transport systems and cities of the future, strong examples of the means and mechanisms for including men and boys are difficult to come by. I feel the ‘how’ warrants substantial attention so as to take care not to generalise all men as dangerous, while also reaching male cohorts who require genuine support in understanding the problem and their role in addressing it. Keeping blame (as a repellent) under control and keeping accountability at the fore, is a delicate balance -particularly in societies where cultural factors have influenced the identity of masculinity as dominant and guided the socialisation of boys through adolescence and into adulthood.

While I acknowledge the importance of public and powerful condemnation of perpetrators in raising awareness of long silenced issues, I sometimes wonder if within the prevention narrative, the rhetoric is detrimentally blame orientated – which does not serve to attract men and boys to the table. I am interested in practices and examples of how a language of accountability, where values are safely explored, questioned and forged could be a more constructive space to invite men and boys to the table.

This also seems to be reflected in the different types of crimes that men and women seem to experience as mentioned by Cecile – men suffer more than women from violent crime, while women suffer sexual harassment and petty crime /loss more. But as women tend not to report the crimes or incidents that happen it may look as if they suffer less. In the majority of the surveys it is often stated as their major concern so it is difficult to unpick if this is just a concern or if women actually suffer more from petty crime but it may not appear so as they report it less often. This lack of reporting is due to a variety of reasons including a lack of time as women are often trip chaining and making multipurpose trips (dropping off children, shopping etc on way to or from work), as well as having a stronger feeling that it was in some their fault (than men) and a low regard for the authorities to either sensitively with their grievance or with any great effect. This makes it quite complicated to understand – and as women often do not take part in the stakeholder processes in an effective manner we know less about it. Just because less is known it does not mean that it does not occur – indeed from the statistics that are coming out about concerns about sexual harassment it seems that this is a much larger problem that we may have initially thought.

As you say, sexual harassment on public transport is a common experience for women. A study that was published last year in France showed that women were less victims of crime than men in public transport but they experimented fear of crime a lot more. The study could show that the fear of crime comes from daily harassments, for instance sexists comments that were not considered in the statistics. Consequently, women would (all of them!) modify their mobility patterns, going from vigilance to avoidance of using public transport. The study shows that women avoid using certain lines their consider dangerous or traveling by themselves at night, and modify the way their dress (the study is available here in French http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/Les-violences-faites-aux-femmes,42492.html).

Therefore it is crucial that, when discussing how crime affect women in public transport, we do not consider only crime statistics, but also how their behaviors are modified because of fear of crime. Prevention measures should focus on both those aspects.