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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

EMPLOYMENT AND COMMUTING BY RURAL WOMEN ON THE METROPOLITAN PERIPHERY

This study surveyed rural women in four eastern Iowa counties, collecting and analyzing data on their work experiences and commuting patterns; this analysis is a basis for policy recommendations aimed at reducing the burden commuting currently imposes on women workers in rural areas. The report is organized in seven chapters. Chapter One provides an introduction. Chapter Two reviews previous research on rural employment and compares employment in the study area and its economic structure with those of the state of Iowa as a whole and with the nation. Chapter Three discusses the demographic profile of the survey respondents. It addresses the first of four research questions: How important a disincentive is commuting cost for women who are engaged in home-based paid work or who choose not to participate in the labor force at all? Chapter Four focuses on the 333 survey respondents who were employed outside the home. The first section of the chapter answers the second research question: How do commuting costs vary between different forms of labor force participation (defined by occupational sector, part- or full-time status, or location of job)? Next, the costs in time and money that commuting entails for different groups of employees are analyzed, to assess how commuting patterns affect individual employees. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the effect of metropolitan adjacency on the labor market choices of rural women. Chapter Five analyzes respondents' own evaluations of a set of job attributes (including commuting distance) and develops an explanatory model of commuting behavior. An empirical model of the differences among the three principal groups of women workers answers the third research question: What rewards do different categories of women workers receive in return for the commuting costs they bear, and which rewards are most important in explaining why some women commute longer distances than others? Conclusions are drawn from the analysis in order to answer the fourth research question: How do the costs of mobility constrain or shape rural women's participation in the labor force, and do these effects differ among categories of current and potential women workers? Chapter Six discusses the policy options identified for policy responses outlined above. It first looks briefly at local economic development strategies for bringing jobs to rural areas. It is concluded that, in the short term, rural women would benefit more from access to metropolitan labor markets than from rural economic development initiatives. The remainder of the chapter thus focuses on access and transportation-related policy issues. An analysis of modal choice is presented, and policy solutions based on rural public transit and ridesharing or vanpooling are explored. The final chapter integrates the findings of the telephone survey and the analysis of labor market structure to present a coherent picture of the relationship between commuting burdens and labor market choices.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This study was funded by the University Transportation Centers Program of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Iowa Department of Transportation.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Midwest Transportation Center

    Iowa University, Public Policy Center, 227 South Quadrangle
    Iowa City, IA  United States  52242
  • Authors:
    • MacDonald, H I
    • Peters, A H
  • Publication Date: 1993-7

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 106 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00638833
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Nov 19 1996 12:00AM