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Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

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Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't but it contextualises them. An inability to recognise that is a signal. Have you seen any correlation between socioeconomic factors and perpetrators of sexual assaults? Recognising that one group commits the majority of certain crimes isn't the issue, as you said it's just stats. The issue is entirely in ignoring other factors.

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The driving factors do exist though in the case of race which make filtering by it unacceptable. SA is common across race, socioeconomic status, etc. There are certainly some argument for some cultures encouraging beliefs that make it more common for them no argument here.

That said filtering out drivers of a certain race is unlikely to make any difference in your risk profile where women filtering out men is likely to make a huge difference in their risk profile.

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#172

Absolutely wild that none of the dissenting comments suggest a means of lowering or eliminating sexual harassment of women passengers. Why not start there? Get creative.

The most effective way of combating this for Uber would be to start doing deeper background checks, live interviews, in-depth assessments, customized testing on their drivers. Mandate video and audio recordings in the car that's streamed to them. Impose harsh penalties on harassment, including immediate dismissal and mandatory police reporting. You know, act like a real employer. Right now they have all the reasons i…

That sounds like a great solution. In the time between now and when that gets implemented, I'm more than happy with the stopgap.

Dear readers, if you wish to get rid of the stop gap, advocate for this.

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you employ someone as a driver, you also have far more information, even more than when you determine whether to let someone in a bar.

Uber could ask for it but the customer does not have more information

Uber is also the one deciding to offer a rideshare service where mens are banned for working for them. Uber has the choice between vetting their employees and doing discrimination based on a correlated proxy. They choose the latter, and this discussion is about whether that is legal.

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#174
Only women can request women drivers? Ok. Will trans women and intersex people be allowed to request women drivers? They are an especially vulnerable group.

What about women drivers?

How will the boundaries of these classifications be determined, and what happens when someone tests these boundaries?

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#175

Only women can request women drivers? Ok. Will trans women and intersex people be allowed to request women drivers? They are an especially vulnerable group. What about women drivers? How will the boundaries of these classifications be determined, and what happens when someone tests these boundaries?

“What about women drivers?”

The headline is…

“Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US”

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#176
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it illegal to set a filter for a female gynecologist over a male one? Or a male gym trainer over a female one? Or a massage service, hostel, sports team? Is it illegal to set a gender preference on a dating app? Is it illegal to issue a casting call for a female actor or model? This kind of "discrimination" is a part of society, and has been tested in courts plenty of times.

I don't think you need scare quotes, this is discrimination. Discrimination isn't always bad. IANAL but it seems like these are cases where we just kinda ignore some laws, and society usually goes okay despite and in spite of it. Just my uneducated impression. Could you link to some cases where this kind of thing has been tested? I have an amateur interest in law and this issue is puzzling to me. It's not at all clea…

The legal standard that must be met for this kind of discrimination is called "Bona fide occupational qualification" [1]

Generally customer demand is not enough use this defense. Airlines tried using it to defend hiring only female flight attendants and lost.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_fide_occupational_qualifi...

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#177

Only women can request women drivers? Ok. Will trans women and intersex people be allowed to request women drivers? They are an especially vulnerable group. What about women drivers? How will the boundaries of these classifications be determined, and what happens when someone tests these boundaries?

“What about women drivers?” The headline is… “Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US”

What I was trying to get at is that the class boundaries get fuzzy for both the riders and drivers. And where you draw the line will have consequences for both riders and drivers.

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#178
post #66

So Uber is finally dropping the pretense of "vetted drivers" and "strict background checks" and whatever else they claim in their advertising. It's good that women get this service, but I'd be pretty concerned as a man as well. At this point whenever I call an Uber it's a 50/50 whether the person and car listed in the app will be the one picking me up. A lot of times I wonder if the driver has a license or insurance…

They're going to spin it as a concession of the lawsuits they're facing, and they're face plenty, regarding the sexual assault of women from drivers.

This isn't being done because they want to, users have been asking for this since pretty early in ridesharing history. They're pre-empting the lawsuits and their consequences

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“What about women drivers?” The headline is… “Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US”

What I was trying to get at is that the class boundaries get fuzzy for both the riders and drivers. And where you draw the line will have consequences for both riders and drivers.

"If we can't make it perfect we shouldn't make it better".

Re: Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got to ask. Is this kind of violent crime common or perceived as common in the US? If a stranger asked me for a ride home here my first thought wouldn't be that they want to attack me.

I think, due to a lot of reasons including skewed media reporting, a lot of uncommon things are perceived as common in the US, and vice versa.

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