Hail a taxi in New York City, and the odds are that your driver will be a wise-cracking male cabbie who’s unafraid to share his philosophy about life with you.
But, do the same in Kampala, and you may just get a sharp female graduate who’s turned to taxi driving as a way of getting ahead in Uganda’s uncertain job market.
Margaret Isiko (27) is a case in point. She’s one of 16 women who have taken the wheel of metred taxi cabs that were introduced in Kampala last month. At the moment, 30 of these yellow cabs are plying the streets of the Ugandan capital.
Isiko has a bachelor’s degree in hotel management, catering and tourism, and previously worked as a marketing executive at an amusement centre. When she saw a newspaper advertisement calling for women taxi drivers, she applied with no real expectations: ”But when we were told about the package, I thought it was cool!”
Now Isiko combines her work as a ”cab captain” with marketing AfriCar: the indigenous company that brought yellow cabs to Uganda.
”It’s interesting [work], although there are challenges that come with it,” she said.
”Sometimes men tend to get surprised at a woman driving a cab. Some even tease you. When they see a lady in the driver’s seat they say, ‘How can a lady drive? Can I drive you instead?’.”
Less positively, ”Some men feel threatened and make all sorts of comments. ‘Ladies have taken all our jobs’ they say on the streets.”
Augustine Ssentongo, a male cab driver in the same company, doesn’t see his female colleagues as a threat.
”We as men are learning a lot from them. The way they handle people is so good. I think it has something to do with the fact that some of them are mothers,” he says.
Esther Meyanji, a 23-year-old fine arts graduate, is also trying her luck as a cab captain. Initially, she worked with a NGO, producing graphic designs to help the group with advocacy.
But, ”They [AfriCar] were interested in lady cab drivers, and also I liked the fact that they were diversifying that area of employment,” she said.
”’I can’t believe you are driving a cab,’ my friends told me when I broke the news. But my parents were OK … sometimes it gets really tiring, but it’s OK.”
Every year, thousands of students graduate from Uganda’s 15 universities. They enter an economy that is growing briskly: the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa puts Uganda’s growth for 2001/2002 at 6,2%. However, relatively few white-collar jobs are being created.
Bobby Namiti, a business manager at AfriCar, says the company provides opportunities for people who might feel frustrated in this climate.
”One of the things we tell them when they are being interviewed is that much as they are now cab captains, there are plenty of other jobs [higher up in] the organisation that they can later take up.”
Isiko is already looking ahead.
”We are pioneer employees in this company. So definitely, we will go on climbing the ladder. And I believe that two or three years from now, I will become a manager. This job is giving us a chance to become big people in future,” she says.
Adds Meyanji: ”I do not think this is going to be a permanent thing for me. I know the company is going to grow. Maybe I will be taking other positions later.”
Namiti says the firm advertised for female drivers because it thought women should be given a shot in what many consider a ”man’s world”.
He notes: ”Ladies have good customer service and an instinct to treat people well. So a little training could get them doing something good.”
A university degree is required for those who want to join AfriCar.
The firm has, however, had to take into account that female drivers might be more vulnerable than men in certain situations: for their safety, women currently do the day shifts, while men work at night.
Still, this compromise is better than having no women behind the wheel at all.
”Ladies should have courage and do things that men do. If they do not have jobs, what will they eat at home? Let them come out,” says Isiko. — IPS