I went to a Rose Cafe this week where we talked about gender and transportation. I hadn’t really thought about how gender influences the transportation choices you make, but talking about it during the cafe made me realize that it really does. For example, I don’t use Uber/ other ride-sharing apps, and I don’t accept rides from people until I really know them because of safety reasons. It seems like every couple weeks you hear about women getting sexually harassed or assaulted on these ride sharing apps. I am lucky enough that I don’t need to use those services, but there are many women who have to use services like these to get to work, or go grocery shopping for example. That’s why we as a society have to come up with a way to prevent sexual harassment/assault from happening on public transportation. One thing that we talked about was that in India, there are some areas of the train/subway that are reserved for women only. But that is only a band-aid solution, it doesn’t target the root of the problem. The only thing that can is education and progress so that societal norms change. Society is very resistant to change, so more and more people have to speak up and convey that sexual harassment and assault do happen, and that that is not okay. We have already seen that recently with the #MeToo campaign, and also in the film industry. But I do think that these “band-aid” solutions are good until society changes. They allow women to leave their homes and go out and work/ care for their family. This gives them more independence. This independence will lead to demands for equality, which will eventually end up changing societal norms. This independence also gives women the power to leave abusive situations and still be able to provide for themselves. In short, I believe that these “band-aid” solutions allow women to be more independent, which leads to society changing bit by bit. I hope that one way everyone can ride public transportation/ use ride-sharing apps without the fear of sexual harassment/ assault.