COMPLAINTS OF A WOMAN TAXI DRIVER

We know that the prefecture grants women driving licenses in increasing numbers each year. In 1924, the number of female drivers was exactly 4,000. How many of these, excluding the "chambermaid driver", who is currently making a timid appearance in some employment offices, are professionals? Thirty-five for Paris, it seems. However, if I believe the complaints of a female taxi driver, the public, especially women, show them a distrust that is unjustified.

It is in front of the Louvre that I find this disillusioned woman, towards the evening, and the little scene I witness gives me the reason for her disenchantment. Twelve cars, in a row, park on the square. In less than four minutes, the eleven drivers load up and leave. Alone. the driver is left behind. When she is the only one left, an old man, probably short-sighted, approaches the free vehicle and suddenly backs away in small steps. A moment later a young mother comes straight to the taxi and returns hurriedly with her offspring, as soon as she has spotted the stationary one. I call her and give her an address. I am about to get in, when, ironically, she feels the need to interview me or rather to open up a little: Not afraid?
No, why?
But because you are going to be driven by a driver. In the eight months that I have been in the business, I have been able to note it, come on, the little movement of retreat. We move forward, we discover me and we move away. Those who are polite pretend not to have seen me or to change their minds, jogging suddenly tempts them. The others, there are some, show, by ostentatiously calling a colleague, that they do not accept that a woman does this job. We find it quite natural, and we are right, that rich ladies drive their little cars is it more extraordinary that others, less privileged, seek their livelihood behind the wheel? If we made a statistic, we would see that accidents due to female drivers do not exceed those caused by male chauffeurs. For my part, I have never had a single one.. There you go: touch wood! Eh! Even when we are called, we are wary!... It is the women, that is what I cannot understand, who fear us the most and who give us the least tips. Moreover, those who choose us generally tell us at the end of the journey that they also know how to drive. Not you? Too bad!... If they are more absent-minded than the customers? No, on the contrary. Finally, here it is, by "going out" as much as the drivers. we earn, on average, 10 to 15 francs less than them per day.
I think the time has come to say a word:
How much?
The question does not please my interlocutor. She smiles, opens the door, leaning to the side and, inviting me to get in, states, mockingly
No, but, sometimes!... And professional secrecy?...

HUGUETTE GARNTER.