CSH Talk by Silvia de Sojo “The Gender Gaps in Human Mobility”

Silvia de Sojo (Technical University of Denmark) will present a talk on Friday, November 17th, from 3 – 4 PM.

Title: The Gender Gaps in Human Mobility

Abstract: Mobility plays a vital role in our daily lives, encompassing activities such as commuting to and from work, running errands, and taking vacations. Individuals often display similar mobility behaviors when sharing everyday responsibilities. For example, commuters typically travel to work during rush hour, parents need to drop their kids at school, and university students tend to go out on Friday nights. Recent quantitative studies have identified a gender gap in human mobility, revealing distinct behaviors between men and women. Women tend to walk shorter distances, visit fewer locations and spend more time at home. However, the factors driving these differences remain unclear. In this talk, we will demonstrate how smartphone data can be utilized to unveil gender gaps in human mobility. First, we will present the findings from a unique data set containing GPS traces of over 250,000 individuals, exposing the consistent gender gap in mobility across countries, age groups, and urbanization levels. Second, we will explore the influence of employment and investigate whether the gender gap in the labor market might explain the observed gender gap in mobility. Third, by leveraging smartphone application data, we will examine how becoming a parent transforms the mobility patterns of males and females. Lastly, we will use a city-level physical activity dataset to investigate how the urban environment shapes mobility and contributes to gender differences. Through this session, I hope to foster an open discussion on how we can continue researching the role of gender, race, or socio-economic inequalities in human mobility.

Bio: Silvia de Sojo Caso is a Ph.D. candidate in the Section for Cognitive Systems at the Technical University of Denmark, supervised by Laura Alessandretti and Sune Lehmann. She received a BSc in Industrial Engineering in 2016 from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Spain, and an MSc in Business Analytics in 2022 from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Her professional experience includes various roles, from Data Analyst to Project and Program Manager at HP Inc, Barcelona, and UNDP, UN City Copenhagen.

Her research focuses on understanding behavioral inequalities across genders and diverse groups. She analyzes large-scale data sets, including GPS traces from over 6 million users, smartphone app usage, and online user-generated data. She uses a cross-disciplinary approach to integrate methodologies such as network analysis, distributed computing, and matching techniques. In her Ph.D., she explores the gender gaps in human mobility across countries, cities, and socio-economic groups. Using causal inference methods, she examines the influence of household responsibilities, division of labor, and safety perceptions on gender differences in mobility.