Employment: Breaking gender barriers for women, men in gender-sensitive careers
.. Women are now undertakers, bus drivers, auto mechanics
By Tunde Karounwi
How do you feel seeing someone doing well in a job or business which is traditionally not cut out
for his or her gender?
For instance, as a man dressed in clean suits, cruising in a clean SUV and suddenly your car breaks
down on the road and the only source of help is a beautiful female auto mechanic, who does the repair works diligently, far better than anyone who had handled your auto repair works in the past? Or you are a lady, who wants to get your hair fixed and shockingly the services
rendered by one macho-looking dude
becomes the best you have ever gotten?
It does evoke emotions, and appeal right?
And you could possibly part with an extra for some reasons you cannot explain?
Salient Times followed some individuals to find out if there is financial advantage by being involved in a job or service where their gender is considered unpopular. And the findings are shocking:
Gideon Nkwo, the hairstylist:
Hair styling is every inch feminine but Gideon Nkwo who hails from Isiala Ngwa in Abia State Is smiling to the banks for his decision to branch off to tend to the needs of women.
He had started life in Lagos as a barber dealing with only men. But he was always
broke for that, because the first barbing shop he worked for was a unisex saloon, which paid them on commission basis. He says: “I was always broke despite working so hard. We were paid on weekly basis based on money we were making and at the end of the week, mine was always the least.
I was barbing men and they rarely paid well and did not offer any tips. But my colleague, a lady from Anambra was always having money. She charged as high as N5000 when I was charging N500, which some of the men considered high.
When it became unbearable for me, I decided to forget the male hair and understudied them on how to tend to female hair, and my story changed afterwards. Today, I have a shop at Ikeja and I have expanded to be doing body treatment for females too. It is far more profitable.
Only God knows what would have happened to me had I continued barbing only men. I am comfortable doing this, though it has its drawbacks, which I can freely tell anyone. People have a feeling that our sexual orientation is queer. Some often ten to think that we also sleep with the women we help to make beautiful.
But that is not entirely true but depends on individuals.
Speaking for myself, I can tell you that I am normal and married with 2 children”.
Yetunde Mohammed, female bus driver:
Yetunde is popular at Ikeja Bus Stop, Lagos, where she is the only female bus driver, plying from Ikeja Underbrideg to Alausa Secretariat route.
Her attraction to transport business which is male dominated started in 2016, when she got tired of staying at home, and not being able to help her
husband in bearing the financial burdens of feeding, rent and school fees. So she hit the streets, starting out as a Keke Marwa operator, graduating to a minibus driver, from where she saved money to get herself a bus which she uses today.
On a good day, Yetunde makes N10,000, after all expenses and with this she is doing a lot in her family, including her ongoing building project.
Of course, people, especially men, like entering her bus, meaning to have a feel of what female commercial driving looks like.
Of course, there is no easy way of making money and Yetunde’s challenges include the sneers from male drivers, who believe that she should be at home like other women instead of joining them in a job that is the exclusive preserve of the men.
Sometimes, also certain people tend to see her as wayward, but she is undeterred by those perceptions as she is focused on making money while remaining loyal to her husband.
Out of passion to save more for herself from her daily earnings, she has gone to learn the basics of troubleshooting in buses, so she could rectify minor mechanical faults, without needing an auto repairer. It is only when it is extremely necessary therefor that
she hires a mechanic.
Sylvia Clement, the borehole mechanic:
Some time ago, UNICEF embarked on a project to provide water in some communities in Kaduna State alongside the UK government and the Kaduna State Rural Water and Sanitation Agency by
providing scores of borehole for the communities in some LGAs of the state.
But a few months after, the boreholes were all broken down due to lack of maintenance, simply because there was no manpower to repair the boreholes.
That was what spurred Sylvia, a mother of five, to take a plunge into the world of borehole repairs.
She took time off her usual farm work and after a few months, she was fully trained in a UNICEF organised programme to undertake repairs of boreholes.
Her life has never been the same.
According to her, “It was not easy for me because it is seen as a man’s job, but I knew I could do it and make an impact in my community.
I will forever be grateful to UNICEF, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) and RUWASSA, for giving me this opportunity not only to serve my people but to also provide me with a source of livelihood”.
The takeaway here is that instead of being idle and lament, you can put on your thinking caps and identify something you can do that your gender rarely does, and you will be surprised how customers of the opposite sex will be paying you more to do it! Give it a try today.
