Driving a career in Tehran: Experiences of female internet taxi drivers

Abstract

This qualitative study, explores the career experiences of 34 female internet taxi drivers (FTDs) in Tehran, the capital city of Iran—a developing Muslim-dominant country—and responds to the call for international and contextual perspectives on careers. We adopt the intelligent career framework and the institutional logics perspective to understand the FTDs' career given their institutional context. First, we shed light on why (i.e., financial needs, flexibility, passion for driving, and having social relationships), how (i.e., preferring female passengers, driving skills, improving navigation skills, becoming masculine, accessing a car, and developing self-protection strategies) and with whom (i.e., internet-based taxi company, passengers, family, and citizens) our participants work. Then, we illustrate that normative (e.g., traditional division of labor) and structural (e.g., economic hardship) forces constrain and drive why, how, and with whom the FTDs navigate their career. Our findings unpack an emerging career as it unfolds in an unconventional career context and extends the boundaryless career perspective to examine nonprofessional independent contract workers.

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ORCID for Mina Beigi: orcid.org/0000-0002-4866-7205

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