Private Story
Motogirl, a Gig Economy Story from Brazil
Summary
Juliana Iemanjara dos Santos is a 34 years old black woman from the outskirts of São Paulo who faces racism and sexism every day on her motorcycle in a city dominated by cars. She's a motogirl working for apps like Uber delivering food while struggling to sustain her family.
This report followed Juliana during three days of work delivering food, taking care of her children and riding around the city on her motorcycle. Besides having conducted an in-depth interview with Juliana. This story was financed by The Fairwork project, based at the Oxford Internet Institute and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center to highlighting labour practices in the platform economy.
"You work all day carrying food on your back, and you're often hungry. Motoboys don’t respect other motoboys either (motoboy is a term to identify motorcycle delivery workers) If they see a woman riding it's even worse. On the street you have to be unruly. There is nowhere to run. You will suffer. The risk already exists just by the fact that we leave our house and ride our motorcycles on the street. Our body is like the bumper of the cars, we have no protection."