Who’s in the driver’s seat? Gender and the division of car use in auto-deficit households

Abstract

• Practical necessity—the amount of time spouses that spend on household-serving or work-related activities—is the primary determinant of automobile use for both men and women. • Women are more likely to be the primary houseworker than men. • Women have substantially more exclusive access to the household vehicle than their male partners. • The findings reflect the persistence of the gender division of household labor and the role of the car in its maintenance. • The use of alternative modes of transportation is high among spouses who travel when the vehicle is in use by their partners. We examine the role of gender in access to household resources, in particular the household automobile. Drawing on data from the 2012 California Household Travel Survey, we isolate the determinants of vehicle use within dual-earner, dual-driver, heterosexual households in which drivers share a single vehicle. We test four gender-related hypotheses: the role of disparities in economic power, practical necessity related to the household division of labor, gender norms, and gender preferences. We find that practical necessity—the amount of time that spouses spend on household-serving or work-related activities—is the primary determinant of automobile use for both men and women. In contrast to previous research, we find that women have substantially more exclusive access to the household vehicle than their male partners. Rather than a measure of equality, this finding reflects the persistence of the gender division of household labor and the role of the car in its maintenance. The study underscores the broader need for policies to equalize gender roles both within and between the home and the workplace, as well as a role for transportation policies that serve the needs of household members who do not have primary use of the household car.