(More photos below the article and on Google Photos).
In March, women’s history month, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies convened Women Making Moves: Gender and the Changing Nature of Transportation to celebrate the rise of strong women in the transportation field in Los Angeles, and to elevate the voices of three rising leaders: Lisa Schweitzer (UP Ph.D. ’04), Assistant Professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, Tamika Butler, Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, and Chanda Singh (M.A. UP ‘10), Policy Analyst at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. CicLAvia and the LA Cleantech Incubator co-sponsored the event.
Herbie Huff (MURP ‘11), Research Associate at the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies began the evening by listing some of the many noted female alumni of UCLA’s transportation degree programs. Among them are the current chair of Urban Planning at UCLA Luskin, Evelyn Blumenberg (Ph.D. ’95 M.A. UP ’90), the director of transportation planning at the Port of Long Beach, Allison Yoh (UP Ph.D. ’08 M.A. UP ‘02), and the editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, Sandra Rosenbloom (M.P.A. ‘67). “Transportation planning is a male dominated field, but it doesn’t feel like that at UCLA,” she said.
Martin Wachs, distinguished Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning, moderated the panel. He brought to it a history hearkening all the way back to the adventures of women travelers like Alice Huyler Ramsey, who became a sensation when she drove across the country in 1909. Since then, Wachs noted, women have been banned from NASCAR for winning too many races and we created a stereotype of women as bad drivers. He asked: “A woman is the director of Los Angeles Department of Transportation, women are on the board of LA Metro; a former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and several California Secretaries of Business and Transportation were women. Women are heads of airlines and railroads. Are women fully at home in transportation leadership roles or are there still battles for recognition and inclusion that need to be fought?”
Schweitzer, Butler, and Singh are, it seems, at home in their leadership roles and still fighting a battle for recognition and inclusion. The three spoke to an at-capacity room filled largely with transportation planning and policy professionals. The conversation was a frank and personal one. At the same time, it was always connected to the relevant contemporary policy issues in which these women are engaged as professionals: complete streets, equitable access and mobility, and the changing nature of transportation in the Los Angeles region.
Butler spoke about “transportation dudes,” drawing knowing nods from the audience — men who explain transportation to her, failing to recognize her knowledge. She also talked about being black and gender non-conforming, and the ways in which these strongly shape her experience in the field. Schweitzer spoke frankly about being one of very few women with tenure at the Sol Price School of Public Policy, and about subtle sexism like being asked to take notes at a faculty meeting. She told of expressing her concerns to her Dean about the frequency with which the School convened all-male panels. “Men as experts, men as speakers, men as knowers; this is all our students are seeing. And it has gotta stop.” Singh echoed Butler’s perspective on the intersectional nature of identity – saying she is always going to see things as a woman of color and the child of an immigrant. She asked how women can wield more power in the dominant professional societies such as ITE and at the national convening of the Transportation Research Board.
Members of the audience asked questions about navigating the field and the workplace, and many hands remained raised when it was time to end the panel. The conversation continued long into a lively reception, with a soundtrack courtesy of Michelle Obama’s Girl Power Playlist.
Written by: Herbie Huff (MURP ’11)
