official opinion on “Chariot for Women”, the new Uber competitor that only hires women drivers and only picks up women:
women in Ubers are not at an elevated risk of sexual assault. most people who are sexually assaulted know their attackers. our societal obsession with the scary stranger as the prototypical case of sexual assault to protect ourselves from is deeply unhelpful.
women also commit sexual assault. saying “we’ll only hire female drivers, to keep our women safe” is buying into a narrative about female harmlessness and male predatoriness that helps female abusers and rapists get away with it.
In general, the fact that women are scared to be out at night and scared to call a cab is a problem. That fear is not remotely warranted by the evidence, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect and limit peoples’ lives. it is part of the same patriarchal “women can’t go out alone; they need protection” mindset that motivates some countries to require women have male chaperones. It is not feminist and feeding the unwarranted flames of this fear in the name of feminism is disgusting.
There’s this thing that keeps happening where people say “let’s unquestioningly accept the patriarchal narrative that women are pure, virtuous, and need protection. Let’s also unquestioningly accept the narrative that women are safe around other women, and that danger comes from men. Then, let’s come up with a plan for ‘empowering women’ that buys into both of those assumptions completely and in fact reinforces them! Why aren’t women empowered yet?”
On the bright side good on them for having an unequivocal “duh we take trans women, they’re women” policy. I guess if we’re going to all be subject to stupid empowerment-flavored pedestalization it may as well serve a population with a legit non-negligible risk of random strangers assaulting them.
Also this just seems like a bad idea economically. Women are probably like 50% of Uber passengers but only 14% of drivers: it’s hard to imagine demand won’t be way higher than supply. Add in the fact that there’s no surge pricing (*eyeroll*), and it’s hard to imagine cars won’t be really expensive, have really long wait times, or both.
The enthusiasm for an all-female service ranged from “I would be all over it” to “HELL YES” [caps hers].
I have to wonder how this enthusiasm will hold up when they see the prices or have to wait half an hour for a car.
Also the fact that articles about this keep talking about the number of sexual assaults in Ubers and linking to “Who’s Driving You?” as a source which is literally a scare campaign funded by the taxi industry.
I’m always surprised at how scared other women seem to be of being assaulted by strangers. When I was talking about this to one of my friends she was like, “well yeah, I wouldn’t take an Uber alone with a male driver.” And I was like “??? I’ve probably done that like 30 times? How do you even get places?” (The worst thing that has ever happened to me while alone in an Uber was my driver telling me that I “look like a nerd.” This was not actually a bad thing and was in fact a great source of amusement.)
The 14% of drivers thing probably has much to do with how much women drivers are harassed by male customers. Plus don’t assume your experience matches what other women experience.
Sorry, definitely didn’t mean to imply all women have the same experiences or that women are never harassed or assaulted in Ubers! Just because I think it’s weird how scared other women are of strangers doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong or irrational. (Also to be clear the correct response to someone who is irrationally scared of something is sympathy, not “haha you’re being silly.” Irrational fear is still unpleasant.)
And I kind of doubt women being harassed by passengers is the main thing driving that 14%? I mean, truck drivers don’t pick up passengers, and only 5% of truck drivers are women. Men drive more than women in general: they’re like 60% of drivers on the road. Maybe men just like driving because operating a steering wheel while looking around for other cars is similar to hunting on the savannah, which requires using weapons with one’s hands while looking for an animal to kill.