In this paper, the role of two factors contributing to the explanation of the mobility patterns of adult men and women in the Montreal metropolitan area in 1987 was tested: the participation of women in paid work and the membership in a particular type of household. Results show that when adults are divided according to working/non-working status, the mobility profiles of men and women are more similar and for some dimensions quite equal. This first factor proves to be very accurate. If a second level is added to the analysis and also distinguish adults by the type of household they live in, it is found that many mobility parameters tend to be sensitive to the number of adults in each household, where the household is conceived as a pool of human resources able to share trips necessary to the household life and sensitive to the presence of minor children (dependent members in the household). However, results for households comprising two adults show that some aspects of the patterns of mobility of men and women still reflect a traditional division of work in the family.
Abstract