Citation

Koushki PA, Ali SY, Larkin AM. Transp. Res. Rec. 1994; 1450: 67.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Gender bias may be the single most significant contributor to the current worldwide escalation of both poverty and population. Whereas sex discrimination can be found universally, its effects are most pronounced in developing nations. The greatest obstacle to the development of policies for the curtailment of gender bias is lack of information on the scope and effects of the problem. An attempt is made to quantify attitudes toward gender bias among professional women working in the field of transportation management in Kuwait. The major findings that emerged from the study were as follows: (a) Since 1970, Kuwaitis have witnessed an enormous growth in the number of women in higher education; (b) with respect to job-related factors such as salary scale, professional treatment, responsibility, benefits, and vacation, nearly 80% of professional Kuwaiti women surveyed expressed a feeling of equality with or even superiority to their male counterparts; and (c) with respect to one job-related criterion, promotion to upper management positions, the women under study felt they were treated "less than equal" to their male colleagues. Perceptions of employment equality reported by the survey population were found to be positively correlated with level of education, years of work experience, grade point average, and field of specialty. The relationships were all significant statistically. Among the job-related factors contributing to the feeling of equality were, in order of importance, professional treatment, promotion, level of responsibility, and the opportunity to reach upper management positions. Interestingly enough, salary scale contributed least to the feeling of equality.

Language: en