How to Avoid the Gender Data Gap in a Digitized Transportation Infrastructure
Date: 27 May 2021 , Stockholm
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Detailed program and information about the speakers (pdf 1 Mb)
Why do we need this conference?
Digitization of our transportation infrastructure is running at full speed today. Technology is an important tool for ensuring sustainable development and we who run this process have a responsibility to support new technologies that lead to an economically, environmentally and socially inclusive society.
The use of artificial intelligence, computer learning and apps are becoming normal in the design, construction, operation and maintenance phases of our infrastructure. For this reason, it is increasingly important that we make sure our technologies are inclusive and relevant for all its users. Data plays an important role in this. But as it turns out, data is not necessarily neutral and free of bias.
The aim of the conference is to raise the awareness of decision-makers about the urgency to deal with gender data bias.
We are taking transportation infrastructure as a specific focus area because it is such an essential part of the built environment. What we see happening is that smart infrastructure is more and more becoming the cement between societal building blocks: from supporting electrified autonomous vehicles that reduce the environmental impact, to providing accurate information about the quality to support emergency services into urban areas…and so much more.
We have to make sure that within our digitization efforts our data is inclusive and representative of the entire population.
This means that within our engineering disciplines data bias and the gender data gap needs to be known and we need to actively prevent our society from locking itself into solutions and processes that are not inclusive and thus not safe.
The main aim of the conference is to raise the awareness of its urgency to decision makers and leaders that drive the development of infrastructure in the built environment.
Background
KTH Road2Science Competence Center conducted a study on gender equality in the road engineering sector. The aim was to gain a deeper understanding of the current gender distribution at different hierarchical levels in the road engineering sector in Europe and the United States, in both academia and industry.
Data from the survey clearly shows that the proportion of women decreases higher up in the hierarchy. Donwload the survey (pdf 903MB)
Road2Science has identified the gender gap in the data ”Gender Data Gap” as an important challenge in social development and will continue working to counter this in the digitization of the transport infrastructure sector.
May 2020 we organized a webinar with Caroline Criado Perez, award winning author of Invisible Women – Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. This conference is the next step on the road to widen our perspective and raise awareness of the impact that gender biased data has, not only on new technologies and the digitisation process but society as a whole.
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