Woman in a man’s world : documenting the experiences of women e-hailing drivers in Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

The world of work is changing rapidly in diverse ways, particularly in the context of the gig economy, where people compete for work online and can work from any location. This kind of work promises workers flexibility and autonomy. However, there is little that is known about the experiences of women who are working as drivers in the e-hailing sector. This dissertation focuses on the experiences of women e-hailing drivers in Pretoria, South Africa, particularly focusing on how they understand the concept of flexibility and control. The fundamental purpose of the study is to explore the motivations, challenges, and the coping mechanisms that women e-hailing drivers in Pretoria adopt to navigate the risks, fear and anxiety of operating in public and digital spaces. Additionally, it aims to draw from the meaning they attach and how they influence and shape the overall workers' experiences. In this dissertation, I adopt a qualitative descriptive research methodology grounded in the inductive bottom-up approach to extract the accounts and nuances of the women e-hailing drivers’ experiences. Research participants were recruited through purposive sampling through the e-hailing women-only category that filters out male drivers. The study utilised semi-structured in-depth interviews with twenty women e-hailing drivers in Pretoria. The data was analysed thematically to identify the patterns and themes from the participants' narratives. The findings suggest that women e-hailing drivers understand the flexibility offered in e-hailing; however, it operates within socio-economic and structural constraints, highlighting a persistent flexibility paradox. Thus, I conceptualise this flexibility as ‘survival flexibility’, which is defined as ostensible flexible scheduling that operated primarily as a coping mechanism for most of the women e-hailing drivers, rather than a preference. This challenges the dominant narratives of flexibility as beneficial and liberating. Moreover, the dissertation highlights the subjectivity, context and gender specificity of flexibility in the gig economy. Overall, research on the gig economy should move beyond the generalised and dominant narrative and account for the differences between the sectors, to avoid developing simple and neat solutions, but pave the way to safeguard and ensure the sustainable prosperity of the economy.