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Introduction
The backbone of a nation's economy is its logistics system, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many logistics bottlenecks across the globe. An ongoing problem for many countries has been the ability to recruit and retain truck (i.e. lorry) drivers – because it can impact global trade and a nation's competitiveness (Fleming, 2021). In the US, the president of the American Trucking Association claims that the trucking industry is short 80K drivers, which is a 30% increase prior to the pandemic (Yurkevich, 2021). A 2021 report by a global road transport organization predicted that European companies would see a 17% shortfall in truck drivers (IRU, 2021). The same organization recently reported that the driver shortage actually jumped 42% from 2020 to 2021 (IRU, 2022a).
In addressing the labor shortage issue, a common theme is the challenge to recruit and retain women in the truck driving industry (IRU, 2021; STR, 2020; Lee, 2018). One reason for the difficulty is that truck driving is a quintessential blue-collar “masculine occupation” (Teig and Susskind, 2008, p. 848; STR, 2020; IRU, 2022b). While there has been speculation about why there are so few women in the truck driving profession despite attempts to reverse course, the issue has not been addressed in the academic literature, and as such, has not been investigated with strong methodological or theoretical rigor. In response, this research attempts to gain a more nuanced understanding of the industry dynamics. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to offer a theoretically-derived perspective about the current and historical composition of female truck drivers [1] in the US trucking industry.
To enhance theoretical understanding of the gender disparity in the truck driving industry, we draw from theory developed to examine underlying factors facilitating gender dynamics in the workforce (Barbulescu and Bidwell, 2013; Sterling and Fernandez, 2018). This body of literature examines both employer demand-side factors (e.g. industry structural artifacts and practices) and employee supply-side factors (e.g. personal preferences) to explain the gender makeup and distribution within occupations. Using this theoretical lens provides greater insight into the causes of the disparities, which could likewise help industry decision-makers increase the opportunities available to women.
Methodologically, a comprehensive and rigorous empirical examination of the gender makeup in the US trucking industry is...