Commuting and gender in Italy: A methodological issue

Commuting in Italy has always been addressed without regard to gender differences. Following the issuance of a comprehensive database by the National Statistical Institute, it is now possible to analyze gender differences in personal mobility for the first time in Italy. For our analyses we used Local Labor Systems (LLS) zoning in lieu of administrative zoning. LLSs are territorial subdivisions based on the principle of a self-contained labor market and are widely used in Italy. This article also reports the results of a multidimensional data analysis aimed at highlighting relations between different gender-based commuting patterns and a set of variables (education level, age, household structure, occupational category, and position, etc.). The analysis points out gender differences in the relationship among commuting and socioeconomic characteristics, reveals that these relationships are in turn related to the economic structure and geographical context of different regional labor markets, and suggests to analysts that they be sensitive to singular context when interpreting the meaning of gender differences in commuting.