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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

#181
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they feel safer this way, What if somebody started a Whites-only gym because it made them feel safer?

[dead]

A similar uncomfortable reality exists in rightoid spaces where theres hemming and hawwing at articles like this being blindly misandrist, despite the evidence and statistics on a societal level that men overwhelmingly commit more acts of sexual violence on strangers and deserve higher even segregation (its not even close to the same ballpark), but alas, they flee the consequences and promote a culture that critiques their legitimate and statistically backed reluctance to participate (like this thread). Despite the name, cherry picking isnt that fruitful of an activity.

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

#182
post #165

Sex is a protected class under Title VII of the civil rights act. And the supreme court recently said that even majority classes (men) are protected by this. Since Uber involved in the decision to send more business to female drivers than male drivers, this would seem to me to run afoul of employment discrimination (sorry we don't need as many men workers today, too many of you competing so market forces mean we're g…

Are Uber drivers employed by Uber?

Law is in flux.. Employee or contractor, it's basically not settled law yet.

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

#183
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Interesting, the Wikipedia article has this to say

Mere customer satisfaction, or lack thereof, is not enough to justify a BFOQ defense, as noted in the cases Diaz v. Pan Am. World Airways, Inc. and Wilson v. Southwest Airlines Co. Therefore, customer preference for females does not make femininity a BFOQ for the occupation of flight attendant. However, there may be cases in which customer preference is a BFOQ – for example, femininity is reasonably necessary for Playboy Bunnies. Several breastaurants like Hooters have also used such requirements of femininity and female sex appeal under a BFOQ defense. Customer preference can "'be taken into account only when it is based on the company's inability to perform the primary function or service it offers,' that is, where sex or sex appeal is itself the dominant service provided."

So basically the question to ask it "Is it a bona fide occupational qualification that the driver be female?" Seems like a high standard to reach. Arguments based on "feels" as in "I don't feel safe around this kind of person/employee" seem like the very kind of discrimination that the law has tried hard to eliminate. It's pre-judging someone based on sex, and deciding that they aren't safe even though they haven't done anything. I understand that women are often harassed, but the law already has a process for dealing with harassment.

I predict this kind of thing (apps that allow customers to discriminate on the basis of protected class) will spread and eventually be challenged in court. Curious how this will all play out and become settled law.

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

#184
post #92

Uber is already being sued by male drivers in California: https://onlabor.org/january-25-2026 I think the lawsuits probably make sense. While you can claim that there is a statistical danger, you can make that same claim about a number of other protected characteristics. Would we allow riders to request only female, heterosexual, over 45, wealthy Quaker drivers, if that happens to be the statistically safest driver c…

The wealthy Quaker drivers thing threw me. I know it's an exaggeration but is there a large enough wealthy Quaker driver population drivers ubers for this to be a concern?

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

#185
post #109

Sex is a protected class under Title VII of the civil rights act. And the supreme court recently said that even majority classes (men) are protected by this. Since Uber involved in the decision to send more business to female drivers than male drivers, this would seem to me to run afoul of employment discrimination (sorry we don't need as many men workers today, too many of you competing so market forces mean we're g…

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.

It's not illegal to do business with whom you want to (freedom of association etc)... but if my business provides you with tools to systematically avoid a protected class (say, black businesses) then my business might not be legal.

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

#186
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Women's only gyms and hours exist already. If there's a need, and they feel safer this way, let them have it

Why does the same argument never work in reverse? When men want something for themselves then the same people say that that would be sexist.

For the same reason that white people wanting "White History Month" doesn't work.

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

#187
post #67
post #4

Unfortunately necessary. Essentially every girl I know has had at least one bad experience with a creepy uber driver. These are people that are entering their address and often their workplace into the app. It's a big reason why a lot of my friends are picking Waymos instead.

Fully agree and am pretty disappointed reading replies on here. Anyone familiar with the demographics of this forum? What % male is it? If you have women in your life, ask their thoughts on this. It’s easy to not understand problems that don’t exist for us.

Unfortunately there's no easier way to see the gross underbelly of Hacker News than to mention race, sex or gender.

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

#188

If this form of discrimination is ok, can we get other filters?

Women's only gyms and hours exist already. If there's a need, and they feel safer this way, let them have it

The difference is the business structure. Women's only gyms are operated as private clubs, and must follow a very strict set of laws.

Uber is a public accommodation. It cannot discriminate based on sex. If someone wanted to start a private club where women joined to drive and be driven in a not-for-profit way, that would also be legal.

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

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You don't get to say "these people's rights are inconvenient, so until we make it more convenient, I say we ignore their rights." We either care about sex discrimination everywhere, or we don't care about it anywhere.
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