Comments on: Question: Why do we rarely see female taxi drivers?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:30:23 +0000

Ok i agree your your point .But its not possible in each and every time .Think about that.

By: Cool Cars

Cool Cars — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:00:32 +0000

Your article is great and does make good sense. But in my country, it is not possible to have female drivers to prevent any harassment to occur! Wish we had the same issue here!

By: Bes

Bes — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:24:11 +0000

Arizona Vacation Rental, thanks for the comment. That could be one of the reasons, though Jacki in her comment below tells about her being a British Taxi Driver and loving it. So Cayman islands is another place with this happening. Did you notice any difference between male and female taxi drivers there when it comes to attitude or related elements?

Jeff Gordon, thanks for the comment. Which area or continent do you live in, if I may ask? That will help me in figuring out the areas where this is or is not common.

Giovanna, thanks for letting me know. I am happy that this helped your project and thankful that you considered this important enough to be used for your project. I hope you did very good on it.

Jacki, thank you for sharing and for letting me know. I really appreciate it. So it seems that your job has no stereotypical problems of a large level. It is good to hear from you on this topic, as that shows that the issues like safety or the male-vs-female mentality in different professions can be and is proven wrong in different situations. You said you live by a naval base: are your customers usually from the naval base also? What made you get into the business, if I may ask?

Thanks for taking the time to share with us all. I can feel a bit that you love your job indeed.

By: jacki

jacki — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:10:07 +0000

Hi I am a female british Taxi driver and proud of my business. The other guys call me glamour cabs as I am a proper girly female . I use this too my advantage and have no aggression toward me, I live by a naval base everyone is polite and well behaved, mostly they like a chat . love the job no problems .

By: giovanna

giovanna — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:10:37 +0000

very interesting comments. you’ve helped me for my anthropology project about taxi drivers!. thank u.

By: Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:46:53 +0000

good point, i never do see that

By: Arizona Vacation Rental

Arizona Vacation Rental — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:56:55 +0000

i think its because its never really been seen as a womans occupation and it could be dangerous for them to a certain degree, with muggings, etc, especially since the customers could have you drive them to the middle of nowhere. i did see some when i went on vacation to the cayman islands; there were quite a few female taxi drivers.

By: Bes

Bes — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:16:48 +0000

GT, thanks for the example. I think that’s a very important observation, that such a profession usually requires such a character. Otherwise it can be easy to even tell someone that you have a knife or something and get their money or a free ride. I’m sure saying you have a knife in many places like New York or Los Angeles to a taxi driver while not having one can mean a lot of beating and pain for the person pretending to have a knife.

By: Gorilla Trades

Gorilla Trades — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:42:31 +0000

I’ve actually had two separate female cab drivers here in phoenix and i’ll take a cab quite often on the weekends to or from the bars. Both of the female drivers fit the exact description in your post. I think it is the nature of the profession that calls for cab drivers, male or female, to be a little rugged; afterall you are constantly in the presence of strangers, often intoxicated. that is probably not a good profession for the faint of heart.

By: Bes

Bes — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:56:51 +0000

Thanks for the explanation Jessica; it makes sense. I hope that such a thing happens quickly. Not the passing away of men [lol], but the jobs being more approachable by females. The turnover rate is indeed one of the things that is resulting in such a trend; I think referrals are a big reason why most taxi cab drivers are men. Men keep referring their male buddies.

Thanks.

By: jessica

jessica — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:31:43 +0000

Sorry for the confusion. By function of time, I mean that over time, as men who are in these job either move on (or pass away) more openings will come up for women and men.

If these jobs are primarilly held by men, and there is no turnover, then over time that will change because no one lives forever.

Hope that makes sense!

Jessica

By: Bes

Bes — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:04:34 +0000

Jessica, thanks for the comment.

I think it may be hard for many women to get a taxi cab job in certain cities. By “function of time“, do you mean that slowly people will get used to the idea of having female taxi drivers?

By: jessica

jessica — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:27:16 +0000

I think it is a generally dangerous job for both men and women, but I think many women may perceive it as more dangerous. Is it hard to get your foot in the door of many cab companies, epecially in major cities like NYC and DC? If it is, and men have been there for a while, it may just be a function of time.