"Gender equality, as well as diversity, represents a crucial resource for an innovative society. A more gender balanced society will improve competitiveness and business opportunities. The representation of women in the transport sector is rather low compared with the labor market as a whole. This is particularly true for the railway sector, where only 18 % of the workforce are women. Women represent a large part of the available human resources in designing the future rail sector. Today, the division of labor is clearly gendered and men are foremost represented in technical and operational functions whereas women work in service areas (Corral & Isusi 2007). The unequal gender representation presents a problem for a sustainable and innovative railway sector. Research has shown that companies with an equal balance of men and women are twice as innovative as other companies. Researchers calculate that businesses can boost their innovation capacity by 110% by increasing the share of women from 25% to 40% (Forsknings? & Innovationsstyrelsen 2007). A gender balanced workforce means that companies become far better at developing new products and services. Gender mainstreaming is a useful strategy for promoting a gender equal railway sector. Gender mainstreaming means to integrate a gender perspective into all policy and planning processes. It is as a tool to identify imbalances and inequalities in processes where gender before has been invisible or regarded as not important."

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