International Women’s Day: Is the ‘journey purpose gap’ closing between males and females in England?

The National Travel Survey is the primary source of data for monitoring trends in personal travel and informing transport policies in England. Respondents document their travel behaviours over a 7-day period, providing information about the journeys they make and why they travel.

For International Women’s Day, we examined the evolution of travel purposes among males and females aged 16 and over, during the period 2002 – 2021, to see whether there is evidence of a ‘journey purpose gap’. This term refers to differences in the proportion of journeys made by females and males for various purposes, such as commuting or leisure. Specifically, we sought to answer:

Was there a 'journey purpose gap' between females and males from 2002 to 2021 in terms of the proportion of journeys made for commuting, business, education, shopping and leisure purposes? If so, what was its magnitude, and how did it change over time?

Commuting to work: A persistent ‘journey purpose gap’ of around 8 percentage points

The proportion of journeys that males and females in England made for commuting remained relatively stable between 2002 and 2021. During the period, between 20-26% of males’ journeys were to commute to work each year, compared to 14-17% for females. Although differences were significant every year (p < 0.001), the effect of sex was small (0.08 ≤ V ≤ 0.11).

Education: A consistently higher proportion of females’ journeys are for education than males

The proportion of journeys for education was consistently around 3 to 4 percentage points higher for females than for males aged 16 and over. It is worth noting that journeys for education include both personal education and escorting others, such as children, to education. In 2002, 7% of females’ journeys were for education, compared to 4% of males’ journeys, whilst in 2021, 8% of females’ journeys were for education, compared to 5% of males’ journeys. Differences between the sexes were significant every year between 2002 and 2021 (p < 0.001), but the effect of sex was small (0.06 ≤ V ≤ 0.08).

Business trips: A narrowing 'journey purpose gap'

The gap in business journeys appears to be narrowing over time. In 2002, business trips accounted for 6% of all journeys made by males, compared to only 3% by females, and this sex-based difference was significant (p < 0.001). By 2021, however, the difference in the proportion of journeys made for business between males (3%) and females (2%) became non-significant (p > 0.05). The effect of sex on the proportion of business journeys has also decreased over time (in 2002, V = 0.09, whereas in 2021, V = 0.02).

Shopping: A narrowing 'journey purpose gap' as a smaller proportion of females’ journeys are for shopping

The 'journey purpose gap' for shopping decreased between 2002 and 2021. Whilst the proportion of males’ journeys for shopping remained at around 20% during the period, the proportion of females’ journeys for shopping declined over time, from 25% in 2002 to 21% in 2021. The sex-based differences were significant every year (p < 0.05), but the effect size declined gradually over time (in 2002, V = 0.07 and in 2021, V = 0.03).

Leisure journeys: No meaningful 'journey purpose gap'

A similar proportion of male and females’ journeys were for leisure between 2002 and 2021, with slightly over 1 in 4 journeys being for leisure every year for both sexes. Sex-based differences were not always significant, but even in years where they were significant, the magnitude of the difference was very small (around 1 percentage point) and the effect sizes were negligible (0.00 ≤ V ≤ 0.02). This suggests that there was no meaningful ‘journey purpose gap’ between the sexes for leisure journeys.

The overall picture

• Between 2002 and 2021, the proportion of journeys that were for commuting was consistently around 8 percentage points higher for males than females.
• The proportion of journeys that were for education, including escorting others for education, was between 3 and 4 percentage points higher for females than males during the same period.
• Although effect sizes were generally small, commuting and education were the journey purposes with the largest differences between sexes, and ones for which differences have remained stable over time.
• The proportion of females’ journeys for shopping declined by around 4 percentage points between 2002 and 2021, whilst the proportion of males’ journeys for shopping remained stable, with small fluctuations. This means that the gap between males and females narrowed over time.
• Although the proportion of females’ journeys for business was 3 percentage points lower than that of males in 2002, by 2021 there was no significant difference in the proportion of business-related journeys, indicating that the gap has closed over time.
• The evidence suggests that between 2002 and 2021, there was no meaningful gap in the proportion of journeys each sex made for leisure.

Summary

Between 2002 and 2021, the gap in journey purposes between males and females aged 16 and over narrowed for both business and shopping. Meanwhile, a small gap persisted for commuting and education journeys, remaining consistent in size throughout the period. There is no evidence to suggest that a gap exists for leisure journeys.

NatCen’s Centre for Social Survey Transformation is commissioned by the Department for Transport to collect data for the National Travel Survey. The most recent dataset covers the period 2002-2022, as data processing for 2023 is ongoing. At the time of our analysis, the time series covered 2002-2021, limiting our ability to track the most current trends.

The survey mode was face-to-face interviewing until 2019 but shifted to a mixed-mode face-to-face/telephone approach from 2020 due to COVID-19, potentially limiting the comparability of pre- and post- 2020 data.

You can access the data here.

Table 1. Cramer’s V effect sizes of sex on the proportion of journeys completed for various purposes, by year.

*p<0.05; **p<0.01, ***p<0.001