Rated R for Risk: Understanding Gender-Based Sexual Harassment through the Lived Experiences of Ride-Hailing Workers

Proponent/s Name/s (Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial)

• Maria Angela M. Basilio, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow
• Xamaeca D. Manuel, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow
• Cailene Elisa C. Ong, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow
• Annikha Felise V. Pardo, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow
• Liezl Rillera-Astudillo, De La Salle University, ManilaFollow

Document Types

Paper Presentation

Research Theme (for Paper Presentation and Poster Presentation submissions only)

Gender, Human Development, and the Individual (GHI)

School Name

De La Salle University, Manila

Track or Strand

Humanities and Social Science (HUMSS)

Research Advisor (Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial)

Rillera-Astudillo, Liezl

Start Date

23-6-2026 3:30 PM

End Date

23-6-2026 5:00 PM

Zoom Link/ Room Assignment

DLSU Manila Campus (In-person) - Philippe Jones Lhullier Conference Room, 14th floor, Henry Sy Building

Abstract/Executive Summary

Platform-based ride-hailing work has transformed labor arrangements while simultaneously exposing workers to new forms of vulnerability within mobile and inadequately regulated workplaces. Despite increasing reports of gender-based sexual harassment (GBSH) in ride-hailing environments, existing studies largely focus on passengers as victims and remain limited within the Philippine context. This study explored how motorcycle ride-hailing workers in Metro Manila understand, deal with, and are affected by gender-based sexual harassment, all within the challenging structure of being employed by an app-based platform. Using the Constrained Agency Framework and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a lens, the study investigated the lived experiences, meaning-making processes, coping strategies, and perceptions of institutional support among six motorcycle ride-hailing workers. Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews and analyzed through iterative interpretative coding and cross-case thematic analysis. Findings revealed that gender-based sexual harassment was understood as a violation of physical and conversational boundaries, within the limited space of the moving vehicle, and very frequently went on after the ride had ended, using the app to make contact and continuing to bother the worker. Participants interpreted these experiences through overlapping lenses of economic survival, occupational identity, gender expectations, and safety appraisal, leading to strategic silence, emotional minimization, and adaptive risk-management practices. Institutional responses from platforms were largely perceived as inadequate, inconsistent, and shaped by gendered assumptions that downplayed male victimization.

Keywords

gender-based sexual harassment, ride-hailing workers, platform labor, interpretative phenomenological analysis, gig economy

Initial Consent for Publication

yes

Statement of Originality

yes