Gender Differences in Space—Time Mobility Patterns in a Postcommunist City: A Case Study Based on Mobile Positioning in the Suburbs of Tallinn

Abstract

The reflection of gender roles in spatial mobility has been in the research focus of geographers as these issues are related to important aspects of the spatial organisation of society and planning such as the location of activities and services, the use of transportation, and housing policy. In this paper we compare gender-driven differences in the activity spaces of a new suburban community in the rapidly transformed former Soviet country Estonia. The authors used a questionnaire survey based on 573 households, and during eight days in 2006 tracked 256 people by mobile positioning. The results show that the space–time behaviour of men and women from the suburbs of Tallinn differs significantly in several aspects: Men have larger activity spaces and drive a car more, while women's workplaces are more concentrated in the city centre, they spend more time in suburban homes, and they use more public transportation. Comparing gender differences in Estonia with differences in other countries on the basis of similar studies conducted in Western countries, it appears that while the distribution of daily activities and the use of transportation are quite similar, there are differences in the location of workplaces.