Liberia, June 30 -- Teta Sherman was sitting at home, bored, watching television when a friend told her about a company looking for women to drive kehkehs, three-wheeled taxis that carry the majority of Liberians throughout the country's capital every day. Her first reaction was disbelief. Driving a kehkeh - and dealing with the numerous mechanical issues that arise - is thought by most Liberians to be men's work.

But Sherman needed an income. The 38-year-old mother of two had been relying on occasional cake-decorating jobs that barely covered expenses. So she decided to try.

But these were no ordinary kehkehs. The kehkehs she was to drive were electric. They weren't relying on dirty and hot combustion engine to operate.

Elvis Thomas,...