Good t ransportation system plays a s a vital role for developing a region and the living standard of the people f rom this region is completely depended upon the level of its transportation system. In many developing countries, rural area development is slow because these countries cannot implement the rural road development quickly . At present , they try to develop the rural transportation system but it still needs to improve more. Myanmar also face s with this problem, and Government tr ies to develop it but a lot of barriers such as lack of budget, lack of high technolog ies and lack of construction materials , still r emain . However, Government can improve the transportation system of some rural area and these villages change their economical and social status at present time. This study focuses on the differences in mobility of the villagers, the income level and livelihood patterns of them, access to socio - economic services and gender division of labor between with newly paved road villages and without paved road villages. In comparing with the rural areas with good transportation system and without good transportation system, four villages are selected , and among them , two are the villages which have road improvement and the rest two are the villages which have no road improvement. For the villages which have paved road, road improvement were finished since last five years and it can be found that how road improvement can served to get better the living standard of the villagers. As this study is gender analysis on rural road development , both male and female respondents are selected from each village. Both female household heads and female from male headed households are chosen as female respondents, and male household heads are chosen as male respondents. This research focuses not only the comparisons among the villages but also the comparisons among male and fem ale respondents of same village and other villages. This study also analyzes on decision making pattern and the ownership of the properties within the households.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Gender , Transportation and Development

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2010