Paper short abstract:

As mobile workers navigating urban spaces, female taxi and app-based drivers experience danger and vulnerability as part of their work. Through different strategies and managing a dual role as target and guardian of clients, women challenge and resist violence.

Paper long abstract:

Women's lived experience of urban violence is deeply linked to their sense of safety and reflected in their negotiation of everyday violence. But what happens when the urban space is also their workplace? How does the experiences of sexual harassment frame their daily experiences of work and livelihood? How do they resist or respond to this violence? In this paper I explore the experiences of female drivers working in the male-dominated sectors of the taxi and platform-based economy (Uber and Cabify) in the city of Malaga, Spain. Reflecting on 35 semi-structured interviews with female drivers, I explore their experiences as mobile workers navigating urban spaces, and their dual role in the dynamics of violence: as the receiver of violence and sexual harassment from clients and colleagues, and simultaneously as the protector of their female clients, making sure they enjoy violence-free spaces.

Away from the idea of women as passive objects, I state that women deploy a sense of agency creating strategies that help them navigate these challenges. In my paper I explore how, through acts of resilience, reworking and resistance, female drivers create strategies as a way of survival. Often these responses aim at denying the potential danger, but in some transformative responses, some of the participants chose to challenge gender stereotypes by non-conforming to the cultural norms of traditional femininity. I argue that women create these strategies to move away from a sense of 'this city is not for me' towards a sense of empowerment.