Women drivers

Although 30% of the driver and fare collector jobs are occupied by women, they are still targets of prejudice for working in the transportation system

There are 22 stops between Pinheirinho bus station and Palmeira, which is in the region of Umbará. In about 20 minutes, you can pass by Angelo Rigolino, João Amadeu Pedro Bom, Faustino Raimundo Pellanda, Nicola Pellanda, Carlópolis, La Salle, Izaac Ferreira da Cruz, Emanoel Voluz, Winston Churchill and Léon Nícolas streets. This is the route that Anna Dal Nagro takes every day, as a driver for the Palmeira route of the public transportation in Curitiba. She started in this career by influence of her father, a driver for the school transportation system, who always took Anna on the commute to school. When she grew up, she worked as a truck driver. However, as she wished, soon enough she changed the truck wheels for the bus wheels. Since urban transportation requires a minimum of two years of experience for admission, her first steps were in a private service, working with companies’ transportation. As she gained experience, Anna took the next steps to join the public transportation system, passing the bureaucratic and practical tests. In fact, on the test she was approved, six men joined her on the enterprise. She and another colleague were the only ones to actually make it. The driver tells us that her routine at work has been gratifying, since she started making friends as time passed. These friends “always bring gifts and souvenirs, some of them give chocolate, every week they bring something”. To her, the good treatment is a sign of the passengers’ satisfaction with the work done by them and also the affection for the so called “busão das mulheres” (the women’s bus; ‘busão’ is a slang term that means bus). Anna works with another woman as a fare collector). Satisfied with her work routine, Anna stills mentions that she has rarely heard prejudiced comments and says that she tries not to give relevance to those opinions. According to her “the only thing that might be improved at work is safety”. Luckily, she has never been a victim of muggings, but many of her colleagues have been through this kind of situation. Anna is also a driver engaged in bringing more women to work in the area. According to her, some women friends need an incentive to create the courage to go after the license and pass the tests. Vanusa Pereira Coelho, the women representative in the Sindicato dos Motoristas e Cobradores de Ônibus de Curitiba e Região Metropolitana (SINDIMOC - Bus Drivers and Fare Collectors in Curitiba and Metropolitan Region Union), says that currently around 30% of the positions in those categories are held by women. She believes that women, especially in current days, are prepared to work in any job, although there are still some positions with no female workers, which is the case of traffic controllers. “Companies usually did not hire women, and although today that is different, women are still the minority. Unfortunately, men still have a lot of prejudice towards women, especially if the woman is a driver. For that reason, women that work Anelise Wickert Gabriel Domingos Mariane Pereira

Tradução: Arthur Rodrigo Maneira Clóvis Alberto de Conti Neto

for, or use the collective transportation system have to unite and believe in their dreams. None of us should ever feel diminished by the fact that we are women”, says Coelho. CDM’s editorial staff contacted the communication advisory of the Sindicato das Empresas de Ônibus de Curitiba e Região Metropolitana (SETRANSP - Bus Companies in Curitiba and Metropolitan Region Union) and there are 6,6 thousand drivers and fare collectors altogether in the transportation system of Curitiba, of which 4,5 thousand are men and 2,1 are women. As drivers, there are 3,2 thousand men and only 80 women behind wheels, that is, 40 men for each woman. The data includes all of Curitiba’s bus lines (municipal, intermunicipal and tourism line). As Anna, Selma Aparecida de Oliveira started her 39-year-old career driving trucks. She always liked driving and even more traveling, but with a small child she decided to change her career to public transportation. Selma explains that public transportation is a “box full of surprises”, and every new day at work represents something new and interesting. She started in 2009 and was part of the first group of women that started to take the driving job in public transportation. Not many women were driving at that time and for that reason she encountered some resistance to take the job. Luckily, with the help and support of her colleagues, Selma was able to pass all her tests, and nowadays she is the driver of the Interbairros IV line. The motivation to become a driver came from her family, since practically everyone had a career as truck drivers. She followed on her family’s steps, having become the first woman of Curitiba to drive the traditional bi-articulate bus. However, taking over the wheel of the “big-red bus” came with certain difficulties: “It was during this period that I suffered the most prejudice”. Nowadays, the relationship with the passengers is very respectful and the disrespectful situations diminished a lot; besides, friendships are formed with the people that take the bus every day. Selma explains that she never thought of pursuing another profession. She had an opportunity to go to college, but she preferred to stick with a career as a bus driver. The positive side, for her, is that she can do what she likes and is able to be close to her family. Although she is satisfied, Selma says that it is possible to improve and, for that to happen, there has to be a joined effort including companies, drivers and authorities. During her almost ten years on the public transportation, Selma’s biggest happiness was the time she spent with her son. After changing profession from a truck driver to a bus driver, she could spend a longer time with her son and he certainly helped her to be a pioneer in the public transportation system. Daniel Henrique, 8 years old, Selma’s son, worked with her during many days. And he made a lot of success with the passengers that would stop by to talk. Selma says that the boy, in a proud way, would always tell all his friends at school that his mom worked on the blue bus. Besides their shared experience as truck drivers, Anna and Selma have a common working place, Viação Cidade Sorriso, a company that has projects in association with driving schools to enable new professionals. Even though the job vacancies are for both men and women, Guedley Cristina da Rocha, compliance assistant of the company, says that the fare collectors that are women have searched the program to become drivers. Nowadays, on the staff, Cidade Sorriso has seven women that work as drivers on the public transportation system in Curitiba.

“ Public transportation is a box full of surprises, and every new day at work represents something new and interesting.”

Selma Aparecida de Oliveira, 39, bus driver

Every day, Selma works driving a bus on the Interbairros IV and Sítio Cercado/Pinheirinho lines.