Copenhagen on wheels

As the workshop on gender and climate change responses that I was due to go to this afternoon has been cancelled, I thought I'd share some of my reflections on Copenhagen as a city.

I've been really impressed by how many people in Copenhagen get around on human-powered wheels, both on bikes, and for the younger ones, in prams.

There was heavy snow yesterday evening, but that didn't stop my host leaving for work by bike this morning. Copenhagen is a city build for cycling, not one that cyclists have to squeeze themselves into - there are wide and consistent cycle lanes, separated from the rest of the traffic, with separate traffic signals. As a result, cycling is the norm, leaving quiet roads where much of the traffic is buses. By contrast, as a cyclist in London, I often feel I'm regarded with sympathy and incredulity, and have to be a confident and assertive rider to be safe.

In the UK, despite women's generally greener attitudes, significantly fewer women than men cycle, but the women who do cycle are more likely to be involved in cycling accidents. This is because women tend to be less confident cyclists, for example, riding close to the kerb when approaching junctions which puts them are risk of collisions with turning vehicles which are less likely to have seen them. Organisations like London Cycle Campaign are working hard to address this, but with policies like that introduced by London Mayor Boris Johnson to allow motorbikes in bus (and cycle) lanes, who can blame them? We need strong policies to make pro-environment behaviour such as cycling easier.

When it comes to prams, I've been surprised both by the number of prams, and the number of men pushing them. Scandanavia countries have much more progressive policies on maternity and paternity leave, allowing parents flexibility in how they divide up caring responsibilities for their children. Compare this with the UK, where women have the right to a year off work to care for their new baby, compared with just two weeks for men. The result is that, right from the start, it is very difficult for men to share caring responsibilities with their female partners, and so they fall predominantly to women, reinforcing the gendered division of labour even where a couple would like to share family caring responsibilities more evenly.

One reason that climate change affects women in particular ways relates to the social roles that they tend to take. This is not to suggest that traditional female roles are of lesser value, but that both genders need choices as to whether to take them. The pre-budget report last week provides some hope for new parents in the UK: from April 2010 the Government propose to introduce a policiy which will allow new fathers after 1 April 2011 to take up to 26 weeks leave once the mother has returned to work. While this allows less flexibility than the arrangements in many Scandanavian countries, it represents considerable progress in addressing the structural factors that force women and men to adopt particular roles in society.

Image: efeb (creative commons)