HOW KNOWLEDGE GAINED IN CARE GIVING, CONTRIBUTES TO BETTE

Knowledge includes facts, information, and skills acquired through experience, education or practical understanding of a subject.

On average, women still spend significantly more time gaining experience and knowledge caring for children.  This international women’s day, I would like to share a story that demonstrates how this experience adds knowledge and value to the work we do. 

Last year I worked on a project looking into conflicts between people on pathways and vehicles at driveways.  It followed a fatality, involving a young child on a bike in such a setting. My own experience told me that driveways were a hazard to such users. I’ve ridden bikes for decades, I’ve called out to my own children hundreds, if not thousands of times. But something clicked one day, when I heard some mum’s calling to their kids up the path ‘watch the driveways, watch the driveways!’ At that moment, I realised that I wasn’t the only one sensing this risk. It was also being felt by others, who were trying to safely steward children around the neighbourhood. 

My own experience. But more importantly, the experience of my parenting peers, and those I had witnessed, provided me with knowledge that became a key motivator for the driveways project. 

Later in the project I had the opportunity to consult with a group of senior traffic practitioners. I enquired whether crashes at driveways were a concern. Most practitioners were not aware of any issues. But three people spoke up. One, was involved in road safety data and identified it as an emerging issue. The two other people, both women, were concerned about the issue. It was something they were considered in engineering practice but they also described personal scenarios. They described methods they used to reduce risks to their own children, when they were cycling or scooting past driveways. 

The experience and knowledge that they had gained, from caring for children and keeping them safe walking, cycling and scooting had been brought into their engineering practice. This experience could be captured in my project but it also brought benefits to their communities and their teams.  It resulted in :

• Better technical guidance – these women became champions when it came to reviewing the draft document
• Better awareness of issues within the organisation – they were already actively trying to manage the conflicts at driveways, because of their awareness of the issues and,
• Better implementation – we are already hearing feedback that the guidance is being implemented by these people. 

The traffic industry is one that is a focus in Caroline Cridado’s Perez’s book titled Invisible Women. It describes differences in typical travel patterns between men and women associated with women undertaking a higher proportion of caregiving duties. It outlines ways, that this may have impacted planning, designing and funding of transport infrastructure. A central premise being that unconsciously, when people who cared for children, didn’t participate in the workforce, then their needs were not considered. Perhaps this explains why many streets were constructed without footpaths.  

The last year has challenged us to reconsider many things about work life balance, flexible working conditions, and how much of our whole lives we admit to the workplace. As our children occasional wander behind us in our TEAMS meetings, and their Lego decorates our backgrounds, it is a great time to remind ourselves of what our organisations gain from having people in their organisation with experience caring for children. 

I believe this experience is permeating through our industry with achievements such as 

• The release of the Queensland Walking Strategy 
• Implementation of Queensland’s Cycling Strategy
• National and State Road Safety Policies that adopt Safe Systems principles – critical guidance for providing for less experienced users
• Footpaths on every street endorsed in the IPWEAQ Neighbourhood Design Code t
• Guidelines produced by TMR that address issues for vulnerable users, including guidance on separated cycling facilities, addressing risks to path users at driveways, underpasses and raised priority crossings. 

There is still much to do but by so, this international women’s day, I’m hoping we do a few things:

1. Encourage people with experiences of caring for others, to bring the knowledge they gain to their practices
2. Capture this knowledge in our workplaces 
3.  I’m hoping we can continue to challenge standards and practices in our professions, to incorporate the knowledge of caregivers.