Hot on the heels of International Women’s Day, Uber, the popular ridesharing app today announced they will hire 1 million women drivers by the year 2020.
As a result of a partnership with the UN Women, a United Nations organization committed to global gender equality — a mission than can only be accomplished when all women have direct access to safe and equitable earning opportunities,” Uber CEO Travis Lakanick and UN Women Executive Director Phumzil Mlanbo-NGcuka said in a joint statement.
Uber did not state how many women are working for the company today, so there are no accurate comparable figures, but they did state that around 22,000 of Uber’s 160,000 US Drivers are women.
“Uber does not require (minimum) hours, and it does not require a schedule,” said Salle Yoo, Uber’s general counsel, in an interview Monday about why women might find working for Uber attractive. “It offers the chance to be entrepreneurial, the chance to balance work and family.”
What we do know is women passengers as of release of this news will not have the ability to request women drivers. Yoo stressed the app’s safety features, including a notification of who your driver is, and the ability to share an estimated arrival time with others. It has also been stated after a claim in Chicago that Uber would add a panic button to the app in Chicago. (Which should be all areas eventually)
Uber believes it’s service offers schedule flexibility and would be a great fit for working mothers. In the meantime, Uber has to live with the Uber France promotion from last year that offered 20-minute rides with attractive female drivers using the tagline “Who says women don’t know how to drive”.
If you haven’t already, join Uber today & receive a free ride.
Link to find out more about this exciting merger: http://blog.uber.com/un-women
Uber + UN Women Stand United
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=y7Evn5X89MY