Strategizing Safety for Women in the Gig Economy: A Scoping Review of Policy Research

Description

This scoping review has been conducted by performing an advanced search of online databases, including Web of Science, Scopus, and APA PsycInfo, to identify articles pertaining to the safety of female gig workers. PRISMA approach for scoping review (PRISMA-ScR) was employed to assess the scope of relevant literature and synthesize the prevalent safety concerns and strategies adopted by various stakeholder to mitigate that concern. A narrative and tabular synthesis approach was used to describe the collected data. A total of 482 studies were identified and retrieved from the databases. Sixteen studies were eligible for inclusion in this review. Abusive behavior in the workplace, fear of nighttime operations, working on digital platforms, customer anonymity, and lack of client verification were identified as the prominent safety concerns. The findings include lack of formal structures for addressing harassment against female gig workers, apart from scant informal strategies. Several barriers pose safety concerns for female gig workers, thereby hampering their participation in the workforce. An altered approach to the existing legal and policy framework will ensure the safety of female gig workers from sexual harassment at the workplace.

Steps to reproduce

To evaluate the safety standards and measures adopted by workers, platforms, and the state to ensure the safety of female gig workers on app-based platforms, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-ScR) 2020 approach was adopted for this scoping review. All PRISMA-ScR 2020 guidelines were followed in this study. A narrative and tabular synthesis approach was used to describe the collected data. Authors’ keywords co-occurrence network analysis, three-field plot, and thematic mapping using R 4.5.2 software were also conducted to underscore the scarcity of scholarship on the concerning issue of safety of female gig workers from sexual harassment at the workplace, sexual assaults. This highlights an urgent need to delve deeper into this area to ensure greater female workforce participation. An advanced search of three databases, Scopus, Web of Science, and APA, was conducted using the same keywords ("gig economy" OR "app-based economy" OR "app-based work" OR "platform work" OR "gig work" OR "on-demand work" OR "digital platform work" OR "platform economy" OR "sharing economy" OR "on-demand economy" OR "digital labor" OR "digital freelancing" OR "ride hailing" OR "food delivery" OR "beauty services" OR "gig worker" OR "platform based worker" OR "app-based worker") AND ("women" OR "gender" OR "female" OR "woman" OR "females" OR "sex") AND ("safety" OR "security" OR "discrimination" OR "harassment" OR "violence" OR "assault" OR "protection" OR "policy" OR "governance") for title, abstract, and keyword searches, as presented in Table 1. The search string was formulated to capture the safety strategies and policies implemented by various stakeholders to address the issue of sexual harassment and sexual assault faced by female gig workers at workplace. Studies that employed quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method approaches were included if they met the following criteria (Table 2): (1) full-text articles, (2) published in English, (3) studies conducted until 2025, and (4) articles that focused on strategies addressing concerns of safety and security of female gig workers from sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. The exclusion criteria included articles without full texts, abstracts, books, book chapters, and review articles. Furthermore, studies that did not provide strategies to ensure the safety and security of female gig workers against sexual harassment and assault in the workplace were excluded. The documents identified in the different databases were merged into a single Excel file, and duplicates were manually removed by a reviewer. Subsequently, two reviewers reviewed the titles and abstracts for eligibility criteria. All extracted studies were independently reviewed by two reviewers. If both reviewers selected a study based on the inclusion criteria during the first instance of title and abstract screening, it was selected for full-text screening.

Institutions

• University of Delhi

  Delhi, New Delhi
• Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University

  Delhi, Delhi

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