From Mothers to Daughters: Examining Intergenerational Safety Work of Young Women in Public Spaces and Public Transportation

Safety work, known as the invisible burden, is the work women undertake in public spaces, including on public transport, to ensure their personal safety. The present study examines safety work from an intergenerational perspective and the influence of parental advice on young women’s perceptions of risk and safety. It places special emphasis on knowledge transfer from mothers to daughters. Twenty-nine young women, mostly university students and regular public transport users, were interviewed in Auckland, New Zealand. The findings revealed that safety work is not only a behavioral adaptation but also an emotional and relational practice embedded within the mother–daughter relationship. Acts of care, such as travel check-ins, avoidance strategies, and self-monitoring, reflected intergenerational patterns of protection that simultaneously preserved gendered inequity. Although mothers’ advice gave daughters a sense of preparedness, it also reinforced a culture in which women carry the primary responsibility for their own safety. Participants described the mental and emotional burden of being constantly alert, as well as feeling frustrated at the normalization of fear as a condition of mobility. For some, safety work has become reflexive and accepted, whereas for others it provokes resistance and a desire for autonomy. These tensions illustrate how safety work functions as both a coping mechanism and a symptom of systemic gendered inequity. This study is a call for action. For change to occur, transport professionals need to recognize the intergenerational dimension of this invisible burden, which is predominantly emotional and physical.