Young women's travel safety and the journey to work: reflecting on lived experiences of precarious mobility in three African cities (and the potential for transformative action)

Abstract

The relationship between women's everyday lived travel experiences as daily commuters and their employment history and potential has not been adequately researched and documented in African contexts. This multidisciplinary study, utilising an innovative action research methodology, compares experiences of young women (18-35y) resident in low-income neighbourhoods of three diverse African cities - Abuja, Cape Town and Tunis. It examines the challenges they face when undertaking travel to income-earning opportunities, the tactics necessary to enable travel with a modicum of safety and dignity, and the ongoing implications for women's employment trajectories and wider well-being. Two (often inter-related) themes occupy a central position in the discussion: mobility scheduling (as a response to domestic/care responsibilities and trip-chaining requirements) and experiences of harassment.