On a busy street in Pakistan, a rickshaw weaves through traffic, stopping to pick up passengers heading to work, school, and markets. At first glance, it looks like any other ride on the road. But when people notice who is behind the wheel, they pause. The driver is a woman.
For many passengers, it is an unexpected sight. In Pakistan, rickshaw driving is widely viewed as a male occupation. Yet a small number of women have begun challenging this norm.
“When I first started driving, people were surprised,” one woman driver explains in the project’s introductory video. “But over time, they realized that women can do this work too.”
Her experience reflects a broader question that motivates our research: What would happen if more women had the opportunity to enter this sector?
Why focus on women drivers?
Pakistan has one of the lowest female labour force participation rates in the world. While many women contribute to household livelihoods through home-based work or informal activities, relatively few participate in visible, market-facing occupations. This limits women’s access to independent sources of income and restricts their participation in public economic life.
Rickshaw driving offers a potential pathway into the labour market. It offers flexible hours, daily cash income, and the possibility of financial independence. However, several barriers prevent women from entering the sector, including high upfront costs, limited access to training and licenses, and social norms that discourage women from working in public spaces.
Our project seeks to address these barriers by partnering with microfinance institutions to provide asset-based financing for rickshaw purchases. The initiative also works with government and private-sector partners to facilitate driving training, licensing support, and safety mechanisms.
What makes this approach distinctive is that it tackles multiple constraints simultaneously. By combining access to productive assets with training, licensing support, and safety monitoring through GPS technology, the intervention aims to address both the financial and social barriers that have historically prevented women from entering the transport sector.
Learning from women already on the road
Before launching the intervention, the research team conducted a pilot phase and spoke with women who had already been driving rickshaws. Their experiences offered valuable insights into both the opportunities and challenges associated with this occupation.
Several women described driving as a source of independence and financial stability compared to irregular or low-paid alternatives. For some, it also meant contributing more actively to household expenses and supporting their children’s education.
At the same time, entering a male-dominated occupation required significant adjustment. Women highlighted the importance of training, confidence, and family support in navigating traffic, interacting with passengers, and sustaining their work. While initial reactions from the public were often mixed, several women reported that attitudes became more positive over time as passengers became accustomed to seeing women drivers.
These early insights helped inform the design of the project, particularly the emphasis on training, safety support, and careful communication with participants and their families.
Who are the women interested in driving?
Early baseline data from over 100 participants provide insight into who is interested in this opportunity. The average respondent is around 38 years old, with low levels of formal education (4.3 years on average), and about half report functional literacy. The sample is drawn primarily from Lahore (75%) and Sheikhupura (25%).
Most participants are already economically active, with 67% engaged in some income-generating activity. However, stable wage employment is limited (18%), with average monthly earnings of PKR 20,000 (USD 71.6). Self-employment is more common (42%), though profits remain modest at approximately PKR 23,000 (USD 82.3) per month. Average household income is about PKR 75,000 (USD 268.6).
Social support remains a key constraint: while 65% report support from close family, this falls to 43% for extended family and the broader community.
Studying a new pathway into the labor market
The study will follow participants over time to examine how access to productive assets like rickshaws influences women’s labour market participation, income generation, and economic agency.
More broadly, the project aims to generate evidence on how women can enter non-traditional occupations in contexts where social norms and structural barriers often limit their economic opportunities. This evidence can help inform policymakers, financial institutions, and development practitioners interested in designing programs that expand women’s access to productive assets and new sources of livelihood.
In cities where rickshaws already transport millions of passengers every day, enabling women to drive could represent more than just a new livelihood opportunity. It could also signal a broader shift in how women participate in public and economic life.
This blog is funded by the WEE-Connect initiative in support of the study ‘Women at the Wheel: A Digital Pathway to Women’s Economic Participation in Transport.’
