working paper

Gender Differences in Commuting: An Empirical Study of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Publication Date

December 31, 1993

Author(s)

Abstract

In sum, my results show that household type, race and housing tenure influence males and females differently. I find that the presence of children contributes to the gender difference in commuting more for whites and for two-worker households than for other groups. However, the effects of the presence of children are not significant on both male and female commuting distances. In fact, I find that two-worker household males behave differently from two-worker household females, and that two-worker household females behave differently from single-worker household females. I also find that there are sharper gender differences among whites than among nonwhites, a conclusion similar to that of Mclafferty and Preston (1991). Finally, I find that housing tenure seems to strongly influence the commuting distances of males, nonwhites, and workers from two-worker households.