Ride-sharing giant Uber has announced that, following successful trials in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit, its program allowing female drivers and riders to choose only to be paired with women has been expanded to 26 more cities, including Salt Lake City.
The program, called “Women Preferences,” was announced in July. Uber said the goal was to give women more choice, confidence and flexibility while using the service.
Riders will have various ways to choose trips with women drivers. They can make the option when requesting trips through the Uber app. Women users will see an option called “Women Drivers,” but if the wait time is too long, other choices with a faster pickup are offered.
Pre-planned trips can also be reserved with Women Preference or riders can choose to set a preference in the app. When women choose this option, they will be given increased chances of being matched with women drivers, though it isn’t guaranteed.
For drivers, the company said that they can simply set the “Women Rider Preference” in their app settings and start receiving trip requests from women riders. The setting can be turned off at any point and drivers will receive ride requests from all riders.
Uber said it is working to roll out the option to drivers nationwide in its effort to bring more women to the platform.
Another change coming is the expansion of the program to include users on teen accounts. The company said that since launching its teen accounts more than two years ago, it has been meeting with parents to gather feedback. One of the top requests, according to the company, is the ability to request a woman driver for teenagers.
Uber said safety and comfort have long been top concerns for women who use ride-share services, both as riders and as drivers. The company cited a recent report of 2,717 cases of sexual assault and misconduct between 2021 and 2022 among users and drivers on its platform.
Uber first introduced a version of its Women Preferences feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019, shortly after women gained the legal right to drive. Since then, it has expanded to 40 countries and powered more than 100 million trips globally.
But Women Preferences is not universally popular. The feature has sparked backlash from conservative groups and a class-action lawsuit by male drivers in California who say it discriminates against men and limits their earning opportunities, according to an article in Time magazine.