Pkw-Nutzung im Wandel des Geschlechterverhältnisses – Trends über drei Jahrzehnte

Abstract

This paper aims at answering the question, how the usage of cars both of men and women has changed in Germany in the context of changing gender relations during the last decades. Moreover, gender-specific differences in car usage are pointed out and their root causes are analysed based on German Travel Survey data. This is achieved by tracing the development of gender-specific car usage between 1976 and 2008 and interpreting the trends identified in a wider context of societal changes. The analyses conducted give results on whether gender-specific car usage results from social roles (e. g. labour participation), restrictions (e. g. lower car availability of women), economically rational household decisions on the car as a restricted resource, or gender-specific preferences. Beyond that it is shown how car usage has changed with respect to men and women with different characteristics (e. g. household motorization, labour participation, household type, municipality size). The results given in the paper show that convergence of men’s and women’s car usage predominantly results from an increasing women’s car usage. Regarding households where the number of drivers exceeds the number of available cars, i. e. the available cars are shared, we find a re-allocation of the scarce resource car between men and women. Yet, this trend varies: For example, women’s car usage increases stronger in small and in medium municipalities than in big cities. Furthermore, the results hint at gender-specific preferences: Even under very similar conditions such as full-time employment and unrestricted car availability, women use the car less often than men.