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#WomeninMotion — Happy International Women's Day!

March 08, 2021

At Surve Mobility, we know the power of diversity. We believe in inclusion and providing equal opportunities. We value our women and want them to know that they are crucial to changing the future of mobility.

That’s why we believe that women in the world of mobility is a topic worth discussing. There is always room for improvement with respect to quotas and roles. We also want to draw attention to the fact that it is not enough to only talk about women in mobility for one day. We need to keep working on making the mobility industry more attractive to women as well as strengthening the existing roles of the women in our company.

We’ve decided to dedicate this entire week to not only our Surve women, but to all the women in mobility: Thanks for helping us push the industry forward!

Women at Surve

In urban cities today, you can stand at any intersection and see varied forms of transportation, from bicycles and scooters to trains and buses. We are ALL living and, therefore, moving about our cities. But it wasn’t always like this, at least not for women.

Before the womens’ rights movement,

“a woman’s place was thought to be in the home and her role was a domestic one. But as women pushed back against these structures and demanded a place in the public sphere, the bicycle came to be emblematic of their bid for freedom. By enabling women to control their own transportation needs, it offered an autonomy that had previously been out of reach” (Three women who changed the course of history on bicycles 2021).

It was mobility that set women in motion in our cities.

Consequently, when we are talking about growing and transforming mobility, we have to consider perspectives from men and women.

This is why meeting the quota for women is so important. To ensure that the future of mobility works for everyone, we NEED more women to set mobility in motion.

To gain insight, we asked some of our Surve women what the mobility industry can do to appeal more to women.

Here's what they had to say:

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY & SPEAK UP:

Change cannot take place unless someone feels responsible for making it happen. That means companies within the mobility industry need to take responsibility for the things that are keeping women away and underrepresented as well as speaking up:

  • about the fear that women have concerning the mobility industry – thinking the industry is ONLY meant for men
  • about what we’re learning so that others can learn too
  • about our struggles and how we don’t have all the right answers
  • to promote diversity policies

TAKE WOMEN SERIOUSLY & EMPOWER THEM:

What does it look like to take women seriously and empower them? For starters, it means becoming aware of our subconscious and ingrained assumptions about what women can and cannot do. We have to stop seeing women as supporting acts and reimagine what leadership looks like. We can do this by:

  • allowing women to lead
  • celebrating achievements attained by women within our companies
  • recognizing and supporting female talent particularly in traditionally male-dominated domains such as tech, IT, and management
  • targeting our recruiting efforts (rather than recruiting female leads largely for traditionally more balanced domains and thereby creating an overall balanced quota, but effectively male and female silos)
  • enabling flexible working (e.g. family friendly)
  • ensuring a safe working environment (e.g. for women working in night shifts)

LEARN (FROM EACH OTHER) TO BECOME BETTER:

The way forward is through learning what works and what doesn’t and adjusting course. That’s the equation for growth. In order for us to grow and to become a better industry for women, we need:

  • to providing learning and development opportunities (to allow up-skilling and promotions to leadership positions)
  • to listen to women in order to learn how to change gender-biased behavior
  • create communities for learning and support

TACKLE CHALLENGES TOGETHER:

One voice in a crowd is hard to hear which is why communities are so important. Communities validate our experiences and amplify our voices. To shift the demographics of the mobility industry, we can:

  • host networking opportunities and get-to-knows between women in the mobility industry
  • create women-centric company initiatives

Thanks to our Surve Women for giving us insights into what we all, can do better to propel women forward in mobility. There’s still a way to go, but we’re ready to create waves for women to surf throughout the entire mobility industry.

Sources:

Three women who changed the course of history on bicycles. (2021, February 15). Retrieved March 02, 2021, from https://womenmobilize.org/women-bicycle-history/

Contact: communication@survemobility.com

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