In recent years the Transport Professionals Association’s (TPA) membership has more than tripled to 3,700 while its share of women members has surged from 25% to 33%. Such high growth rates are no accident, under the tenure of CEO Kirsty Kelly who highlights organisational and structural changes that are making women feel more welcome and engaged.
Kirsty Kelly – Chief Executive Officer, Transport Professionals Association
When Kirsty Kelly joined TPA in late 2019 right before COVID, the organisation had “strong foundations” but was mainly focused on engineering content and in-person events that tended to skew heavily male.
Ms Kelly said engineering and technical excellence continue to be vital aspects of TPA’s offering today, but a shake-up in how the association organised activities and structured content led to a more diverse composition of members.
“We were focusing quite a lot on the engineering side, but the transport planning sector is also critical so we shifted more towards that, which has helped increase the number of women involved,” she said.
“While transport certainly has a technical component, it’s also about people and their behavioural decisions, which is an area where we do see more participation from women.
“When I first started it was heavily male, particularly because a lot of our events were after work. Through COVID our events became online during the working day, and suddenly that subtle change in timing made a difference with more women getting involved.”
Another key driver of membership growth was the introduction of organisational memberships, opening the doors to more potential members from government departments who could opt in.
“The practice of transport is maturing,” Ms Kelly said. “Transport is about moving people and goods, so having a greater blend of disciplines working together is where the industry is heading – we’re seeing that demand coming through from governments around their staffing mix.”
She noted members were coming from a mix of professional origins in transport including engineering, planning, modelling and a range of other fields like psychology and economics. This mix of careers, combined with the trend of having more women in senior positions, has accelerated the changing gender mix within the sector.
“It’s worth noting that while only 20% of the late-career members are women, 40% of our emerging professionals are women,” she said. “This generational change is encouraging and points to greater diversity in the future.”
Ms Kelly hoped TPA’s engagement with universities, upskilling initiatives like the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program, and emphasis on inclusive and active transport would continue to attract more women to the sector.
“The way transport is designed can potentially create barriers to participation for certain groups in society,” she said.
“I experienced this with a mixed upbringing living in four different states, often in outer suburbs and even in caravan parks, and that was when I realised how where you live affects the opportunities you have.
“At TPA we’ve been delivering events, content and policy initiatives aimed at raising awareness of the significant barriers different groups might have to participate in society. A significant portion of volunteers involved in that have been women within the TPA.”
“There is a still a long way to go in the journey to achieve gender balance in transport, but we I believe we are making good progress.”