Women as Motorcycle Taxi Operators in Kenya: Is the Public Transportation Sector in Africa becoming more gender-inclusive?

With the rise of female-headed urban households, limited opportunities for formal employment, and the expanding digital spaces within the informal sector, women are increasingly compelled to forge careers in the traditionally male-dominated public transportation sector in most African countries. The study explored the factors that motivate women to join the Motorcycle taxi (MTCs) business, which is considered a high-risk profession, and how they integrate themselves into it. This looked into how women manage the demanding nature of this business alongside their maternal care responsibilities. In doing so, we seek to illuminate the efforts women make to foster gender inclusivity in the subsector and the challenges they encounter when operating in a highly male-dominated and loosely regulated sector in Africa, as elsewhere in the global South. The findings reveal that women have established their own networks to aid in bargaining and asserting their presence in the sector. These findings provide critical insights into the changing dynamics of gender inclusiveness in informal economic activities and how women’s positions as service providers are expanding in traditionally male-dominated sectors like public transport.