Mexico's Pink Taxi's Cater to Frustrated Females

Mexico City has gotten a spice of color this season. Women are getting fed up with the old taxi cab drivers and are trading them in for the "new" pink taxi cab drivers?

According to the Associate Press, "Each pink taxi comes with a beauty kit, a GPS system and an alarm button. The new fleet of 35 cabs in Mexico's colonial city of Puebla are driven exclusively by women and don't stop for men. The cabs cater especially to those tired of leering male drivers."

Women were getting fed up with the sexual passes from their male cab drivers and are taken action to both protect themselves from unwanted passes of sexual assault and to protect other women who could be endanger.

"Some of the woman who have been on board tell us how male taxi drivers cross the line and try to flirt with them and make inappropriate propositions," said taxi driver Aida Santos, who drives one of the compact, four-door taxis with a tracking device and an alarm button that notifies emergency services. "In the Pink Taxi they won't have that feeling of insecurity, and they feel more relaxed."

You would think women everywhere would be excited about the new pink taxi's that focus on the protection of women, but you can think again....

Women's rights activists are aghast at the cars' sugary presentation and said the service does not address the root of the harassment problem.

"We are in the 21st century, and they are saying women have continued worrying about beauty and nothing more," said Vianeth Rojas, of the Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights in Puebla. "They are absolutely not helping eradicate violence against women."

Even though women's rights activists are not happy with the "noticeable" presentation of the new taxi's other women defend the new service, saying that it opens up doors professions that usually shut Hispanic women out!

Forty-year-old taxi driver Lidia Hernandez, who previously worked at a gas station, called the pink Chevy compacts "a new and attractive source of employment." (see photo here)

According to the AP, "Women-only taxis have been catching on in cities from Moscow to Dubai."

In Puebla, privately financed Pink Taxi de Puebla invested 5.8 million pesos (about $440,000) to start the service and the Puebla state government provided licensing and training.

If the program succeeds, officials plan to expand it to other cities.

A proposal to create a pink taxi service in Mexico City failed to get off the ground in 2007, but the crime ridden metropolis offers women-only buses and subway cars at rush hour.

My thoughts....

It's always interesting to see how other places deal with harassment when it comes to females. It is nice to see Mexico City taking a different approach, but is it the best decision?

Do the women's rights activists have a point? It may not be the "final solution" to deal with the problem, but it is definitely making female riders feel safer? What about the point that it's opening up jobs for Hispanic women that was never a possibility?

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What are your thoughts?

Comments (5)

Pamela Jean

Tatiana, I hated to do it because those were cool pics but I thought it best to remove them (I put the links there though). The reason is that the Associated Press goes after sites like this that use photos without permission and since the AP never gives permission, we have to avoid their pics.

Your blog posts are awesome!

Posted by Pamela Jean | October 23, 2009 9:11 PM

Posted on October 23, 2009 21:11

Nora Thomason

Tatiana

I've been enjoying your blogs very much. It's great to have another feminist in our midst.

Keep it up. These are some fantastic posts!

Posted by Nora Thomason | October 23, 2009 11:08 PM

Posted on October 23, 2009 23:08

Tatiana McKinney

Thanks Pam for that information, I will def. be using photobucket from now on...lol

Nora, thanks for the comment and encouragement. I look forward to reading your posts as well! :)

Posted by Tatiana McKinney | October 24, 2009 12:03 AM

Posted on October 24, 2009 00:03

wscribe

I'm confused here. When I first started reading this article, I thought "What a great idea!" Then I got to the part where it appeared that some activists were aghast because pink cabs are a sign of chauvinism. What's wrong with just protecting women? Why does everything have to have a symbolic sub-tone? Better yet, why does every positive step in the right direction have to be criticized because it doesn't immediately reach the penultimate goal?

Posted by wscribe | October 24, 2009 8:10 AM

Posted on October 24, 2009 08:10

I'm not confused at all.

Tatiana is noting that the society that recognizes the oppression and abuse of women by setting up a separate system for women (separate but equal, sound familiar?) without curing the essential cause of their oppression and abuse is not establishing true justice.

Justice is achieved when women can live in the mainstream of society and feel safe and live free of oppression.

When women have to use alternative forms of transportation just in order to feel safe, how is this essentially different from women in developing countries that have to wear burkas or have to attend separate schools or - as in Saudi Arabia - are not allowed even to drive cars - ostensibly for the sake of their own safety.

Tatiana knows that separate but equal does not really mean equality, it means oppression.

Good post, Tatiana!

Posted by Pamela Jean | October 24, 2009 6:32 PM

Posted on October 24, 2009 18:32

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