Spotlight on Belen Martinez
Postgraduate researcher in International Development at the School of Global Studies
The Journey to a PhD
Belen Martinez
My journey has had some changes and turns. My first degree was in labour relations, and I worked in human resources for several years.I started feeling that was not for me and I needed a change - to reorient my career.I never imagined that I was going to do a PhD. That has been quite unexpected.
I've always been interested in gender issues and I think it all started when I did a masters in Sustainable Development. I did my dissertation looking at a group of women I met while travelling in India. They ran a trekking agency, and at that time, they were the only female-led trekking agency in India. I interviewed them and I just fell in love with doing research and with this specific topic of women working in male-dominated sectors. So, I just wanted to do more. I wanted to do more research, and I wanted to go deeper into this topic.
My original PhD was very different to the one I am doing. My project was based in India and I was just starting my fieldwork when COVID hit. It was a difficult time. I had to live from one day to the next;I didn't have any data and could see that it wasn’t going to work. I decided to change my PhD completely which was very stressful. I thought, okay, what am I passionate about? I like this idea of women working in the male-dominated sectors. What can I do that is easier for me to access in the context of Covid?
The Research
My research examines the experiences of female taxi, Uber and Cabify drivers in Malaga, Spain. (Cabify operates like Uber). I'm looking at them as an example of women who work in a male-dominated sector, and I am interested in their experiences both at work and in general in their lives. I wanted to know what the main reasons they went into the sector were, what the challenges are, how they navigate these and what the outcomes are.
Women at the wheel
The most difficult thing from my fieldwork was actually finding the participants. I landed in Malaga and was walking thinking, ‘Oh, I'm just going to see them’, particularly the taxi drivers. I started approaching them but I hadn’t thought about the fact that they are mobile workers and don't have time to chat. So I started trying different methods, but it still proved difficult. I noticed they were quite isolated from each other. The taxi drivers have a bit more of an informal network from stops around the city but Uber and Cabify drivers don't have a network.
There was definitely a sense from them that ‘I want to do this. I'm passionate.’ Usually they love driving and they all had this sense of freedom and passion about their job. Some of them acknowledged the challenges and there were mixed feelings, with some wanting to do it to retirement and others just for a short time as they felt the challenges were too much.
I knew that women would be struggling with safety but still it really surprised me the level of harassment and how they are treated just by being in a car at night; being touched, being kissed without their consent. As a researcher, that wasn’t easy to write about. But I think it's one of the main things where we need to focus on. To provide more safety for women who may be vulnerable whilst working in the public spaces of cities.
Something I never thought I would do when I started my PhD is read so many books about toilets. When the themes started emerging from the data I had to engage with different areas of literature. For example, I had to start digging into fields of urban design which I had never thought of - I didn't know anything about toilets!
I had to go through the painful activity of transcribing all the interviews. It is probably one of the most boring things while doing research, but it is one of the things that helps you because you get a special relationship with the data. You start processing things and realising ‘Oh they have mentioned this many times’ or this person mentions the same thing this other person said.
We don’t usually think about the women working in these male-dominated professions; what it actually looks like for them when they are the only ones in those spaces. There is a lot of research and knowledge about women working in feminised sectors and there is less knowledge of women working in male-dominated sectors where they are the minority. I think raising awareness and showing what these experiences are is an important aspect of my research.
Queuing for taxis
Achievements and the Future
I'm very proud of the talk and workshop I was invited to give at the International Labour Organisation. It was exciting to apply some of the findings of my research and show it to people who work in this field and see how they were interested in the experiences of these women.
I decided to participate in the Three Minute Thesis to challenge myself as I struggle with public speaking. The best thing about the opportunity was the training; how to communicate to all kinds of audiences, leave aside the academic language, and how to tell your story. It was a wonderful group of people, and we are still in touch. It was a great experience. Definitely something I'd recommend.
What I've learned in my research is that: things that look straightforward, when you start digging, often they are more complex. It’s one of the things that I'm realising I now do in other parts of my life; trying to find the different components that make a picture. Things usually don't have one answer as to why people behave in a certain way.
I would like to be able to spread the outcome of this research, the experiences of these women. I think it's very important. I would like to work with policymakers or trade unions, with those organisations that can push for these experiences and for these voices to be heard and be taken into account more.
I'm passionate about research and it’s something I definitely would like to keep doing.
Interview by Shona Clements