While women constitute about 5 percent of truck drivers here in the United States, the numbers are even fewer in foreign countries. That’s why this story out of Nigeria is so unusual, and it’s why it attracted our attention.
According to a feature in 
The Nation, Nigerian women are making inroads into all sorts of male-dominated industries, from truck driving to welding. In the story, writer Dorcas Egede highlighted several women who are thriving in Nigerian trucking jobs.
One after the other, motorists moved away from their cars to see the cause of the traffic ahead. On getting close to the cause of the traffic and discovering that it was a truck belonging to the Dangote Group, most of them made to turn back in indignation, cursing under their breath. But they soon stopped in their tracks. A woman behind the wheels of a truck? Surely this was no common sight in this part of the world. In no time, there was a pool of humans, particularly males, all struggling to take a shot of the wonder woman.
Hajiya Gambo Mohammed, a senior driver with the Dangote Group, was a spectacle on this particular day. The sight of her masterfully manning the wheels of a heavy-duty truck wasn’t a common one. In a clime where some men still dread driving cars and small buses on long distance, the sight of Hajia Muhammed was no doubt a spectacle.
Mohammed is just one of many women in Nigeria who has a job considered to be exclusive to men. But that’s starting to change. “Over the years, more females who have become skilled in certain manly jobs have emerged,” the article states. “Among them are female mechanics, painters, commercial bus drivers, conductors and welders.”
Another female driver, who goes by the pseudonym Geraldeen Agbonifo, is a widowed mother of three.
She said she veered into transportation business early this year, exactly two years after her husband’s demise.
Like it is with many widows, Agbonifo revealed that she would do everything within her power to raise her children to the highest level possible. “I’m not thinking remarriage. I just want to train my children to the highest level I can,” she said.
Agbonifo got a trucking job after her textile, shoe and bag business folded.
Asked if she indeed faces the challenge of battling the many wild men in the transport business world every day, Agbonifo smiled and asked, “What do you expect? You saw how that driver tried to bully me at Obalende while we were hustling for passengers. I get a daily dose of that, but it doesn’t bother me.
Before you decide to come and do this kind of work, you must have prepared yourself to tussle with bullies like that.”
Interestingly, there’s also the challenge of certain passengers, particularly males, who would refuse to board her bus once they notice its driver is female. But again she says this does not bother her. “I get a lot of admiring stares. In fact, some people purposely get on my bus when they see who the driver is, so it doesn’t bother me when I see those who despise me.”
Read the rest of the story here.
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