It was on one of the local FM radio stations that I heard this rare advert for female drivers wishing to drive commuter buses. Immediately, the overused cliché, “what a man can do a woman can also do” came to mind. What an absolute truth, I thought to myself for any company to be advertising as such. Then in a soliloquy, I whispered, “oh yes, in some cases, the women can do it even far better than the male counterparts”. That inkling, perhaps, is what must have driven the management of the Metro Mass Transit Ltd; Ghana’s flag post bus Transit Company to have embarked on a recruitment drive for as many as one hundred female drivers for this year alone. Already, the company has twenty four women drivers in the system and they are still counting. The excitement in this piece of news, for me, is not in the employment opportunity that has opened up in the company in these days of high unemployment. Rather, it is in the innovation to give female drivers the rare chance to exhibit untapped skills by driving commuter buses around the country. We live in a society where recruiting a female commercial driver would never have crossed the mind of majority of employers in the field of commercial transportation. To many such employers, commercial driving is not a known area for women and so they would not go there at all. Metro Mass Transit has proved any such employer wrong. Everything is possible so long as you set your mind to it. In an interview at his office last week, I put a question to the Acting Managing Director of the Metro Mass Transit, Maxwell Kofi Awuku as to why he and his management have dared to challenge what is seen as the norm and go ahead to recruit female drivers to drive their buses. His answer was simple. For him, “for as long as the laws of this country do not discriminate against women driving, they saw no reason why they could not train women to take up commercial driving.” Explaining his point further, the Acting Managing Director said that women drivers are generally more cautious than men and since the safety of the passenger is at the core of the company’s values, management decided to bring them in and give them the necessary training they needed to do the job just as they would do with male drivers. The company’s bold decision to bring in women commercial drivers was taken in 2010 when 24 women were recruited. They were then sent on training attachment with Sotra, a transport company in La Cote D’Ivoire. On their return, they continued with further training here. They took the local commercial drivers’ test leading to the issuance of their license by the DVLA. Thus the first batch of female drivers was outdoored in July 2010. That indeed was the beginning of a long term career path for female commercial drivers in this country. What perhaps has won the hearts and respect of the management of Metro Mass Transit is the fact that one year on, there has not been any reported accidents from any of the 24 female drivers some of whom are doing long distance journeys in other parts of the country. This advised the thinking of management when they decided to recruit more drivers for their fleet of buses to go in for women. And so for 2011 the company has decided to add on an additional 100 female drivers. Consequently, earlier on this year, the challenge was thrown open to the women who were already in the system and engaged by the company as bus conductors whether they wanted to switch jobs as drivers. 70 of the existing conductors who expressed interest in driving the buses are being taken through the rigorous training offered to newly employed drivers. To make up the shortfall and in order to meet its target of 100 female drivers this year, Metro Mass Transit has embarked on a hiring exercise for thirty more young women between the ages of 25 and 35 years to add to the 70 that was taken from the pool of bus conductors. This is indeed the advert that I chanced upon on one of the FM stations. Interestingly, the deliberate policy to bring more women into the employ of the company started with the engagement of female bus conductors. Currently, there are more female conductors managing ticketing and cash collection on the over 700 operational buses that are in the system and which are serving many towns and villages across the country. Asked why the female conductors outnumber the male conductors, the Acting Managing Director said the company looked at the level of tolerance of women generally and the extent they go to exhibit good customer service. These natural qualities which women exhibit when dealing with others has accounted for the bias towards selecting more women to serve passengers using their buses. Currently, as part of its employment policy, the company tries to maintain some gender balance. The strategy is to increase the number of female staff over the years. For a company whose core business is traditionally the preserve of men, the management of Metro Mass Transit needs to be commended for the initiative in breaking an old “myth”. We live to see when Ghana Railways will follow suit. The passion with which the Metro Mass Transit company has embraced gender balance in its work force and gone ahead to give female commercial drivers and bus conductors the opportunity to prove themselves is a booster for women empowerment. This is a company that has against all odds, stuck out its neck to do what others in the same industry would hesitate to do. I do agree with the company that women are more careful on the road. They would steer off the kind of troubles that start off road rage. Women are more focused on the road than their male counterparts. Kudos to Metro Mass Transit for reminding us of the sterling qualities in women drivers. They have spoken with very little words. Author: Vicky Wireko/vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com