On the bustling streets of Freetown, women are taking the handlebars and breaking into rickshaw driving, a job long dominated by men, in a quiet challenge to stigma and gender norms, the Associated Press reports.

Hawa Mansaray is one of a small but growing number of women entering the capital's male-dominated commercial transport sector. Auto-rickshaws — known locally as kekeh — have become the workhorses of Freetown's narrow streets, ferrying passengers and goods through traffic that larger vehicles struggle to navigate.

Drivers and advocates say only around 20 of the city's thousands of kekeh drivers are women, but their visibility is growing. With youth unemployment estimated at between 60 and 70 percent, commercial motorbike and rickshaw transport has become one of the few accessible sources of income for young Sierra Leoneans, and women are increasingly refusing to be left out.

Female drivers describe harassment from colleagues and passengers, and pressure from families who consider the work unladylike. Many say the earnings — used for school fees, family support and savings — outweigh the stigma, and that every woman on the handlebars makes it easier for the next.

Advocates hope the trend will expand with support such as dedicated training, licensing assistance and credit schemes for women drivers, turning the kekeh into a vehicle for economic empowerment as well as transport.

Source: Associated Press.